• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 21, 2008

Apple might be considering launching a music subscription service that would allow iPod owners to rent all the tracks they want for a set fee. At least that's as reported in The Financial Times, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times; some other press accounts have been skeptical. Apple itself has kept quiet on the reports.

But the rumors seem plausible. While Apple CEO Steve Jobs has previously indicated that he thinks people prefer to own music outright, the company has recently launched a movie rental store, showing it's at least comfortable with the concept of entertainment rentals.

And some analysts seem to think Apple would be able to generate revenue from a rental plan. "There may be millions of people who would never buy into the iPod-iTunes ecosystem who'd be willing to pay $7 to $10 a month for all the music they can get," JupiterResearch Michael Gartenberg told Business Week.

At the same time, the plan appears to come with legal risks. David Pakman, CEO of eMusic, told Wired he thinks the bundling of unlimited music rentals with iPods -- which account for the vast majority of portable music devices -- would constitute an antitrust violation. "That's classic Sherman Antitrust Act behavior. It's called tying, and it's where a company with a monopoly position in one market uses that monopoly position unfairly to compete in another," he told Wired.