Microsoft plan lets subscribers download away

LOS ANGELES — Chris Gorog is convinced people won't continue to pay $1 a song for online music.

That is despite Apple's record string of recent achievements, including 200 million songs sold at its iTunes Music Store, and nearly 4 million iPod digital music players moved into consumers' homes this year.

Gorog runs Apple rival Napster, which offers digital downloads and a music subscription deal. Consumers get unlimited access to listen to 700,000 songs for $9.95 monthly.

The hitch is that to move songs onto a portable digital device or to a CD costs extra: $1 a song. That's one of the reasons digital music fans have not taken to the subscription model — also offered by Real Networks' Rhapsody — in a big way.

But Gorog thinks that will change next year. And he has other heavyweights such as Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft in his corner.

Microsoft earlier this year developed a new copyright protection plan that allows for the transfer of subscription songs to portable players. For $5 more a month, consumers can transfer Napster's entire catalog to their device — and listen as often as they'd like — as long as they subscribe.

With the top-of-the-line iPod, "You can fit 10,000 songs on it," Gorog says. But "to do that would cost you $10,000 if you bought the songs from Apple. With our plan, customers can get 10,000 songs on their device for $180 a year. It's an enormous value."

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