Business models are closely related
to the technologies available to
produce and distribute products and
services. Nowhere is this more apparent
than the recorded music business,
whose foundations since the early 20th
century have been based on the technology on
hand, from sheet music, to records, tape cassettes,
CDs, and DVDs. And now, the Internet
has enabled two new business models: the online
store download-and-own model used by Amazon
and Apple’s iTunes, where you purchase songs
and store them on a computer or devices, and
the subscription service model used by Rhapsody,
Pandora, and many others, where for a
monthly fee you can listen to an online library of
songs streamed to your devices. In this business
model you don’t own the music, and if you miss a
payment, it’s gone.