Jimmy Iovine Hearts Music Subs, Communities

David Card | November 26, 2006, 01:24 PM

Buried deep in a very standard-issue profile in the LA Times, Universal/Interscope honcho Jimmy Iovine sings the praises of subscription music services, and suggests iTunes should be a community:

"Until now, the record industry has thought primarily in terms of defense — 'How do we stop the leak?' " Iovine says, referring to finding ways to combat what he brands as the "stealing" of music through file sharing, piracy and other means. "We have to get into more of the revenue stream. The eventual answer may be a flat fee that enables you to listen to all the music you want. Sites like iTunes need to become a more fulfilling experience — besides music, they should allow you to communicate with other fans, buy concert tickets, T-shirts, maybe even get unreleased recordings by your favorite artists."

Jupiter likes subscriptions, too, but not quite as much as we did last year. We'll be slightly lowering our forecast, based on a better understanding of paying subscribers -- a pretty rarefied breed -- 2005 and 2006 results, the continuing difficulty of delivering a seamless device experience and compatibility, and the potential for ad-based services. New forecast imminent.