In a very recent post called
iTunes is Dead
I wrote about how superior the unlimited-music-subscription business
model is compared to purchasing songs by the track. In the post I wrote:
...the concept of
burning CDs will be obsolete at some point too. People will just share
playlists since others will have access to an unlimited library as well. This
kind of sharing currently takes place among subscribers of the same service.
But eventually a subscriber of service A will be able to share a playlist with
a subscriber of service B.
I just read today in an article on CNET,
Digital Music Spins New Sales Approach, that
Burke, a South Carolina software tester, operates a popular series of Web sites called Scopecreep.com,
where he's posted thousands of digital music playlists, from "Best
songs of 1989" to "Palindrome songs," that can be played by any Yahoo
or RealNetworks Rhapsody music service subscriber.
Not that my prediction that you'd be able to share playlists
between services was remarkably bold, but I wasn't expecting it to be
validated about 2 weeks after I made it. The article itself doesn't
really talk about intra-service sharing, but does talk about how the
the subscription services facilitate sharing and how this is the
biggest weapon they have against Apple's dominance.
