Is iTunes Singing Its Swan Song?

A study conducted by Forrester Research shows that iPod owners are spending increasingly less at the iTunes store, indicating that Apple's digital music download service perhaps has reached the peak of its growth. Do these figures signal an eminent decline for the iTunes music store?

wrote about Digital Rights Management (DRM) and the negative publicity that the practice has wrought upon the iTunes download service. It seems now that the metrics are beginning to support the notion that DRM, at least in part, is actually driving people away from Apple's music store. I'm not one to say I told you so... err, wait a minute. Who am I kidding, of course I'm one to say I told you so. The following is an notes, "iPods are not sitting around generating dozens and dozens of transactions every quarter, People buy a certain number of songs, and then they stop." Another blogger There's no denying that people love their iPods. Filling the portable devices with content, however, seems to find users looking more toward unprotected formats and pirated tracks, rather than dealing with the hassle of paying for content with little to no device portability. Bernoff Rhapsody, and so forth. If digital music aficionados are becoming disillusioned with iTunes, then other services need to step up to the plate and offer a viable alternative. Nick Carr shares a similar People want easy access to their music, and once purchased, they want the ability to do anything they want with it. This is the nature of the portable media beast. If the choice is between DRM and piracy, you can bank on the fact that piracy is going to win that battle every day of the week (and twice on Sunday). And if other music services can offer a lower cost, DRM-free alternative, iTunes is in for some serious trouble. My suggestion to Apple is simple: Do away with DRM before it's too late. Otherwise, tell the fat lady that she's on in five. Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Joe is a staff writer for latest ebusiness news.