The point to be considered with streaming services is
DiscoveryThere is a lot of good stuff out there but how do you know whether you will like it or not. So you rely on your social network or various reviews etc. Or you have a few friends that you closely trust.
I think that's still slower than try before you buy.
The key for streaming to take off is that they allow their customers enough freedom to listen to what, how & when they want. Once you know what you like no one is saying you can't get to a store and buy the actual CD.
But from what i read at
another service this still isn't there just yet. They say
Our licenses do not allow unlimited skips per hour. The idea here is that you should not be able to skip ahead to find exactly the song you might be looking for. An unlimited number of skips could effectively provide "track on demand" which is not allowed in a streaming radio product.I realise this does not pertain to what JRiver might be offering, but the wording implies that it's for any streaming service.
What if this was relaxed but still keeping DRM, i bet more ppl would be interested. In a few months you could get an excellent idea of what's on offer. You have your playlists, favorites etc.
Now what, they know what you like, why not throw in a special offer where you can get your favorite CDs at a discount. On the books it would look like each subscriber was buying the equivalent of an album a month.
For a certain (?) amount of people it might actually be easier to rent than own, in the short term.