Today was also Mac App Store opening day, as well as another day of stuff from CES, both of which I think are pretty interesting. I’m sure the app store will revolutionize software purchasing, as it should — having a unified place and interface and easy method to buy, install, and run software. Sort of what iTunes did for music and is trying to do for videos and books, but media is a different animal from applications. In fact I think iOS apps should be moved out of iTunes and into the App Store, which I’m sure will happen soon enough.
The other interesting thing is a non-Apple company (interesting that Apple still makes more news at CES by not being there) that’s doing a cloud media library that works on multiple devices. The more I think about it, though, the less I actually want to own anything. I’d rather just pay by the use. Music, movies, TV shows, books. A subscription would work nearly as well or better — in fact, pay per use for minimal uses, then subscription for frequent use (listen to music all day). But unlike Sirius, I’d like to listen to “my” music: items from a collection I’ve marked, or optionally suggestions based on that of things that I might like.