“Once again, the way to buy music is changing,” writes Walter S. Mossberg in Thursday’s (5/19) Wall Street Journal. “For years, the legal digital music world has seemed relatively simple to grasp. There were two basic models: the online stores, where you bought singles or albums and stored them on individual computers or devices; and the subscription services, where you pay a monthly fee or listen to ads for access to an online trove of songs. … Now, a new hybrid approach is emerging, one where you own your music, but also can access it all from the cloud and stream it to many different devices via a Web browser or mobile app. This approach is typically called the ‘music locker.’ It is being developed because each of the two existing models has drawbacks. … Recently, two online giants, Amazon and Google, have launched rudimentary music lockers, which allow you to store songs you own online and listen to them on a variety of devices, at no cost or for relatively low fees, and with few if any limits. Apple, meanwhile, is reported to be working on an even more sophisticated version.”
Posted May 19, 2011
