Everything Everywhere Daily · Friday, October 2, 2026
In 2003, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs expressed strong skepticism about the subscription model for music, calling it 'bankrupt.' He argued that consumers wouldn't want to pay for ongoing subscriptions to rent music, predicting it wouldn't be successful, a view later proven wrong by services like Spotify.
“The subscription model of buying music is bankrupt. I think you could make available the second coming in a subscription model and it might not be successful.”
“If it costs you $10 a month or over $100 a year for a subscription fee to rent that song, that means for me to listen to my favorite song in 10 years, I paid over $1,000 in subscription fees to listen to my favorite song 10 years from now. And that just doesn't fly with consumers. They don't want subscriptions.”