Subscription music services from Napster and other online stores could force Apple to offer a similar service through its iTunes Music Store. Jupiter Research analyst David Card expects by 2009 that subscriptions will outpace downloads. “Subscriptions are a great thing for real fans because you get access to a lot of music. The appeal is it’s on-demand. As long as you keep paying, its all there,” he said. “We think many millions of people will be buying 5 to 15 downloads per year versus fewer, a few million, who will spend 10 to 15 dollars a month for subscriptions. The only reason they have iTunes is to sell iPods. If it turns out subscription services are important to sell iPods, they’ll probably get into that business.”
