Portable music is no longer just about the iPod.
New apps from online music subscription services turn smartphones and other mobile devices into “celestial jukeboxes.” They can play millions of songs, on demand, anywhere, for a monthly fee of $10.
You don’t own the music, but because everything is available to you anywhere, “The days of the need to own music are rapidly coming to an end,” says Ted Cohen, a former record company executive who runs the Los Angeles-based Tag Strategic consulting firm.
In a truly connected world, continuing to pay $1.29 a track for a music download “just doesn’t make sense anymore,” Cohen adds. “Subscriptions are a much better deal.”
Unlike the iPod, there’s no need to spend time transferring albums and/or songs to the device before you leave home. With apps from Rhapsody, MOG, Rdio and others, you can summon music to listen to on the spot.
Music subscription services have been around since 2001, when Rhapsody launched. But they’ve never taken off in a big way. Consumers didn’t like that songs were rented and weren’t iPod compatible.
“Up to this point, music subscriptions have been about playing music on your computer,” Rdio COO Carter Adamson says. “The real value is being able to move the music around and take it with you.”
The apps for mobile devices including Android phones, BlackBerrys and the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch make that happen. And while early versions allowed for playback only in areas with cell connections, the apps now allow for downloading to your device. That means you can listen to music on an airline flight or a hike in the woods.
Rhapsody, the oldest and most established of the services, says its mobile app has done wonders for its business. The company was shedding subscribers before its first app, for the iPhone, came out in…