Pundits weigh in on Apple's music plans

"High-quality design and simplicity of use" are expected to be the hallmarks of a new digital music service to be unveiled by Apple Computer on Monday, according to an article in Billboard, the music trade publication. Pundits have started to weigh in on viability of the service, and the much-rumored interest of Apple in buying Universal Music Group.

The Billboard article describes the service as "an a la carte download store -- not unlike that of rival Liquid Audio -- that's built into Apple's iTunes player." No subscription will be required for the service, and tracks will retail for an average of 99 cents, Billboard reports. Once you buy music tracks, they're transferred to your iTunes music library and automatically synced with your iPod.

You'll be able to burn your tunes to CDs. Your credit card information is stored on file in the Apple music services' "shopping-cart system" so you won't have to re-enter the data each time you buy music.

Writing for Forbes, ArikHesseldahl thinks that Apple's venture will "instantly become the big Kahuna of online music services." But he doubts its long term prospects if it remains a Mac only business.

"... the fact remains that Apple users still account for only a sliver-sized share of the computer-using public around the world," Hesseldahl writes. "And unless Apple plans to commit what many of its faithful fans would consider an unspeakable heresy -- offer the service to users of Microsoft's Windows platform -- its chances for mass appeal will be limited."

He also feels that the market for paid digital music is "minuscule" and quotes Jupiter Research as saying the market topped out at 350,000 users last year and about US$50 million in sales "while free and largely illegal services like Kazaa and Morpheus boast untold millions of users."

"Apple's betting there is some kind of pent-up demand for a well-run legitimate music service that requires users to break out their credit cards," Hesseldahl writes. "It may be right, and there's little reason to believe that Apple can't bring out a service that is superior in appearance and ease of use compared with those of its competitors. But can it run this business at a profit? Given the associated costs -- infrastructure and royalties, among others -- the key to that will be a huge volume of downloads. And the only way to guarantee that is to reach out to Windows users."

Meanwhile, Apple has publicly stated that it has "never made any offer to invest in or acquire a major music company," analysts continue to debate the pros and cons of the computer maker buying the Universal Music Group.

News of Apple's interest in Universal Music Group first broke on April 11 with speculation that the company would make a US$5 billion to $6 billion bid for the music business by the end of April. Apple was supposedly making the bid to fuel the company's as yet unannounced music service, which makes downloading and purchasing music as simple and non-technical as buying a book from Amazon.com, according to people that have used the service.