Total Music, UMG's Subscription Service, Lives

Written by A. L. Friedman

Friday, October 12. 2007 at 05:50 PM EDT Post a comment

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Big things poppin' in the world of subscription music, if Business Week has its facts straight. Apparently Universal boss Doug Morris has already aligned with execs from Sony BMG and is working on Warner to call forth a subscription music service called Total Music. And it wouldn't cost users a dime.

The crazy new business model would roll the cost of the music subscription, estimated to be about $5 a month, into the cost of the devices which would carry the music. The added value of the device (a phone, for example) would sell enough devices to justify a slightly higher price. While RealNetworks' Rhapsody is the only subscription model that has gained any kind of traction (excluding eMusic, which has no major label deals), perhaps free music could bring around more consumers.

This isn't the first time we've heard about Total Music by name, as Peter Resnikoff reported hearing about it last month. As we noted at the time, Universal already participates in a subscription service called Total Music, but it is a broadband play.

People like free music and Total Music isn't a terrible plan. But it would work if linked up with established devices, and only if those devices could also play music besides what came from the subscription service. Interoperability is a must these days, with consumers so hostile toward DRM.