My friend Aycan Avci, in a discussion today, described how he’d like to consume music. It’s distinct from any of the available models today, which include:

• The purchase model (iTunes)
• The subscribe, pick and listen model (Yahoo! Music Unlimited)
• The discovery model (Last.fm)

What Aycan would like to see is the Netflix for Music model, where you have access to a set number of songs at a time, and you can consume that set in any manner you choose – on your portable player, PC, etc.  He suggested that it could be as few as a 100 songs at a time that can reside in your possession.  If you’d like to add a 101st song, you’d have to lose one of your existing 100.

Interesting.  My question would be if  this model would be in line with how music fans would like to consume music.  After all, there has always been a video rental business, but never a CD or record rental business (as far as I know.)  One usually watches a film once and has low utility from its subsequent consumption.  Whereas, the same person typically buys music and consumes it many times.

Aycan’s example for a use of this model would be for a party – say a reggae party where the subscriber would download 100 reggae songs, play the playlist for an evening, and swap out for something else, perhaps keeping a few of her favorites for a few more weeks.