Content Subscription Shenanigans

Yesterday, I noted some troublesome reports about the Rhapsody music streaming service (No Guarantees with Content Subscriptions). According to Joe Gratz, music was appearing and then disappearing from Rhaspsody (The Danger of Subscription Music Services). Well, Gratz sent a link to his post to Rhapsody PR person Matt Graves who quickly responded (kudos on taking a blogging customer seriously) and confirmed that, indeed, such shenanigans happen for a variety of reasons but are rare (Real Responds). Gratz's original post had raised the possibility of the music labels toying with consumers by making music available only for limited periods of time, a concern I share. Graves responded:

Sure, labels (indie or major) could tease consumers by offering music online for only a short period of time, then take it offline and make it available only at retail, but that seems like a lot of work to sell a few CDs. And taking it offline permanently could make people more angry than if you never offered it online in the first place.

I'm not so sure the concept is far-fetched. You know how every year or so, McDonald's runs big promotions for the McRib sandwich (available only for a limited time)? Or how Disney makes some movies available once a generation or so? Does this tick off consumers? Yes, but more importantly it drives up demand. McRibs sell like McGriddles hotcakes for a few weeks and then, as demand falls, are taken off the market until their next appearance. If you knew you could buy a copy of Disney's Snow White anytime (Disney's version is not currently available after a limited time release), many would not have rushed to purchase it.

Therefore, I don't find it particularly hard to imagine record labels playing all sorts of games with subscription services to boost sales and/or listens. I've a number of CDs (all thankfully ripped now) in my collection that I don't listen to particularly often, but really enjoy. I know I can always call them up when I want to, but don't simply because my choices are so wide. However, if you told me they were going back into the vaults (for resampling in some new format or some such nonsense), so I'd better listen now, I would. I think such tactics would work in a number of different scenarios. For example, limited edition live concerts. You don't pull all of artist's works, but some rarer works might be available for a limited time. When an artist isn't creating new material, this might be a way to maintain interest in the older material. At the very least you get some press releases out there.

So when a subscription service tells me (using a paraphrase from the NY Times) that a subscription will provide "access to favorites no matter what storage format comes out" excuse me if I'm skeptical.

Me? I like the subscription with mucho included downloads option. All the benefits of a subscription, all the benefits of ownership.