Apple to Offer Hope For People Who Like Their Music Library Hanging By a Thread

Apple's new "unlimited music plan" sounds like a good idea on paper. Customers would be able to pay a $100 premium or a reasonable monthly fee in exchange for "unlimited access to music for the lifetime of the device."

That peculiar wording should grab your attention. You won't be buying music, per se, but paying for "access" to it, meaning that you'll only be allowed to keep a handful of albums when your subscription finally ends or you trade in your iPod. Whether this will be accomplished through the honor system or crippling copy-protection software spliced into the songs remains to be seen. Either way this system will disappoint those looking to legitimize their music collection through licensed downloads - when they crack the copy-protection on the files they downloaded to avoid losing them they'll be pirates once again.

This service seems appropriate for some people (people who form less of a bond with individual albums and records and just want to "play some music"), but not for true music aficionados.