When you can buy just the songs you like in a digital format, you don't have to buy the album.
I guess they feel they don't want to be a leader. They want to be a follower. Eventually, it could hurt Fox if they don't make moves soon to join the bandwagon.
It's getting more competitive. They've entered the stage where incremental market share is going to be harder to get and they're going to just have to focus on running the best business they can.
People have gotten used to listening to songs in the order they want, and they'll want to continue to do so even if they can't get the individual songs from file-trading programs.
It's certainly smart for the publishers to do this.
The initial usage rules are pretty restrictive. A good reason for downloading a movie is to take it on a business trip. The 24-hour limitation makes that a problem.
This is an incremental step, because they are limiting it to short form videos and trivia -- stuff that fits with the short attention span mobile customers might have, particularly a youthful subscriber.
When you look at those screens, they do look awfully familiar.
Apple made a misjudgment that there's no market for subscription services.
They're making consumers apprehensive. They're concerned that they're buying something that makes their computer crash. This affects all the labels. The average consumer doesn't know it's just Sony, so they become reluctant to buy CDs.
