I have read two articles today that have gotten me thinking. The first on TUAW and was basically asking whether people would be willing to pay a subscription fee to rent music from the iTunes store. I am an advocate of this whether other people are or aren't. I think the subscription services are great and allow people to hear new music that they otherwise would not have listened to. That is basically why I have XM radio. There is a lot of stations that I will tune into and just listen for new bands that I like. I also signed up for a napster account and am able to use their online service for free to listen to certain songs a total of three times before I have to actual get a paid subscription. I have also found this helpful for when I am looking around and find a band I think I might like, then I go to napster and listen to a couple of songs prior to purchasing.
The second of the two articles, which I have a link to on the right, was considering the possibility of Microsoft taking a cell phone approach to their personal digital playing personal listening device. Basically a person would sign a contract saying that they would pay 15 dollars a month for a given amount of time, likely 2 years, and by signing that contract and paying the monthly fee they would get a free Zune and access to the music on the store. I am opposed to this. I don't want to solely rent music. I want the availability of owning my music, and being locked into a contract to rent music just seems ridiculous.
Also, for the foreseeable future, the Zune is still locked to Windows and I haven't heard or even made up a rumor in my own mind that they will some day support OSX.