It was inevitable: like iPods, new satellite radio receivers now have the ability to store hundreds of digital music files. But the bad news, the
Wall Street Journal says, isn't for Steve Jobs
and Apple. Rather, the new devices put the music industry in another awkward position because consumers don't have to pay for the songs they decide to store and manage, unlike iTunes. The $13 they pay
per month covers that now, regardless of how long a user decides to keep a song. Record labels receive much, much less from satellite radio than they do for CDs or online music services, and they are
now worried that consumers will (and they will) use the devices essentially as recorders for keeping songs permanently without having to properly pay for them.
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