Apple angling for unlimited downloads of purchased music?

By on Mar 4, 2011 at 8:01 AM
General March 4, 2011

According to a report filed by Bloomberg, Apple is working with record labels to make music tracks purchased via its iTunes Music Store more accessible. The report, which cites multiple anonymous sources, claims that the digital store creator wants to provide music purchasers with the ability to re-download tracks they’ve bought an unlimited number of times. The functionality would provide users with a permanent backup of purchased audio tracks and make getting that content onto multiple devices even easier. Purportedly, Apple is in talks with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI Group. The report did not, unfortunately, specify a timeline as to when the deal could be completed. 

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24 Comments

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  • Anonymous

    I wish they would do the same for apps.

    • Anonymous

      Apps are still free to redownload but it always feels like russian roulette when redownloading. They clearly know you already bought it. How hard is it to replace the dollar value with an indicator saying already purchased?

      • Helvetica

        I agree completely they should have it say “Redownload” instead of Buy, or just add a previously downloaded section like in the Mac App Store.

      • Anonymous

        The iPad has this now. Previously installed apps say Install instead of a price.

    • Anonymous

      Huh? I’ve never noticed any limit on downloading purchased apps over and over again.

    • Anonymous

      You can re-download purchased apps as many times as you need to. Music is one time only.

  • Anonymous

    This would be great. My wife is always buying songs on her phone and then somehow screwing it up and deleting them before I can sync them back with iTunes. Then it’s somehow my fault and I’m the one who needs to contact apple about a re-download. This would save a few moments of annoyance out of my month.

  • http://twitter.com/Davva360 David Moore

    I think it would be a good idea but I don’t think it would be an easy sell to the record labels as they are constantly complaining about digital distribution.

    Apps have always been that way though. I just rdownloaded an App I had deleted a few months ago because they added additional functionality in the new version. The App Store still let me download it for free.

  • Supall

    Why is it that you can re-download purchased games if you lose your data, cross to a new machine, or simply want a clean slate, but you can’t seem to do this with something as simple as music?

    • http://twitter.com/Davva360 David Moore

      Agree but the record labels are the ones causing the issue. Just like I pay for Napster but there are certain artists that I can only stream not download and some artists that I can only here 20 seconds of their song. Pathetic.

  • Dadad

    nice

  • Booboolala2000

    Their music policies are whack anyway. Its the same at Amazon. Loose your device before syncing, too bad. Although I was able to have them enable a certain feature that painfully let me download my purchased music. Haven’t purchased anything from iTunes in years now. If apple was smart, they would turn iTunes into an app, like Pandora. That gives people an incentive to keep using iTunes when they leave the apple ecosystem. But pride gets in the way.

  • Chut Pata

    I can listen to unlimited music from my local radio station. Why can’t I download unlimited music that can be heard only from my iPod. If the downloaded music can be heard from my iPod only, then in effect my iPod is a radio on demand that entertains only my requests.

    • http://twitter.com/Davva360 David Moore

      Is this a serious question? Radio station plays commercials to make money and pay royalties back to the record company so the artist gets paid. The record company also sells music through CD and digital download channels again to make money and pay the artist. If you could download music for free how would the record companies and artists make any money????

      • Chut Pata

        Umm. Did I ever use the world “free”? You assumed I was talking about “free” whereas you should have assumed I meant “paid” because there is nothing Apple gives for free :)

        Read again, I used the word “Unlimited” which is not the same as “free”. I have Netflix streaming package. I pay $8 a month and watch “Unlimited” movies (not “free”). When I stream a video, I am technically downloading it, just not retaining it. If Apple charges me a monthly fee, and allows me to download unlimited music that I can hear on my iPod only, it would be like Netflix, only audio. Apple TV already has a video service. They just need to add an audio service.

        About your second question regarding how would the record companies and artist make any money. Well just like radio stations collect money from advertisers, and netflix from my subscription, and then pay them to the recording companies.

        God, what is so difficult in this concept?

    • Mgurule80

      Are you serious?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_T472T4BMTP767UTJJW2YZFUA2Y R

    This doesn’t sound like Steve Jobs. Has he developed hepatic encephalopathy?

  • http://twitter.com/blakerboy777 Blake Runnoe

    I would honestly consider using iTunes if this feature came to it. I’m refuse to use it because of how silly it is. I don’t have any confidence that when I buy a song it’s mine forever. I just realized today that I lost my digital copy of a movie. If I bought something online and you will eternally have a record that I purchased it, why can I only download it once? Stupid.

  • kwaping

    It’s a VERY short leap from “unlimited redownloads” to “streaming”, since that’s basically what streaming is.

    • Chut Pata

      Yes. My question is, why can’t there be unlimited “Audio on Demand” on my iPod with a monthly subscription? I should make a playlist like I have on youtube, and then listen to my collection without having to download and play songs one by one.

  • http://www.GroupTweet.com Ryan

    This should have been a feature from day 1. Only about 5 years late on this one, I guess now is better than never however. I could never understand how many people “love” itunes and yet could never get their purchased media onto a different device if their life depended on it.

  • Jorge

    I’ve been waiting for this for a while. Would be a great feature that would reunite me with my lost tracks.

  • http://twitter.com/CubsFanboy Tyler

    I bet it has something to do with cloud storage of iOS/Mac purchased media/apps. It looks like Apple is pushing for storing your music in the cloud. Allowing customers to “re-download” from Apple multiple times would allow them to only store one copy on their servers that every customer that has purchased the particular song could download. Better than having to pay for server space for each customer to store said song.

  • Chut Pata

    Since my concepts are misunderstood, I will repeat again. Apple should have all songs and movies on “their” servers, just like youtube has all the videos on their server. Then I should be able to create a playlist like I have on youtube. This playlist should also be on “their” server. I should be able to sign in using my iPod and play songs on my playlist like I do on youtube. If my iPod breaks, I should be able to log in from another iPod.

    To avoid usage of heavy bandwidth, Apple should allow me to download some songs that I can not port of any other device. If I break my iPod, I should re-download on another one after informing Apple that I broke my old one, and would never listen on that.

    A small monthly fee should be enough for Apple, although Youtube is free.

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