DRMBlog, in the course of considering subscription music services poses some interesting questions about models for media ownership:

• Would you rather rent music or buy music?
• Would you rather rent movies or buy movies?
• Would you rather rent a book or buy a book?
• Would you rather rent furniture or buy furniture?
• Would you rather rent a car or buy a car?
• Would you rather rent a house or buy a house?

Let’s start with the easy ones: I’d rather buy a house, a car, and furniture. They’re physical things (needed in their specific physical forms) that I use regularly. Moreover, I like the idea of owning them and being able to modify them at will.

But what about media like books, music, and movies?

Books

A book becomes slightly different. It’s also a physical object, but less rigidly so than furniture, since what’s really vital about the book is its information, and that information could be poured into other vehicles. (With the state current e-book technology, in my opinion the physical book remains the best medium for the printed word. There might be a few exceptions for reference works.)

Some books I buy, some I “rent” (i.e., I borrow them from the library or a friend). How do I decide? Well, the same criteria I was using about houses, cars, and furniture. Do I need this book regularly? Do I like the idea of owning this book (to line up in a pretty little row on my bookshelf)? Do I want to be able to modify (i.e., mark up) this book? If yes, buy. If no, borrow.

Movies

Movies are different again. They are more divorced from a physical nature than books. (But they are tied to the technology used to watch them. I need a TV or a computer or something with a screen to watch a movie.) I rarely want to watch movies regularly — once is enough for a great many movies, and I almost never rent movies so many times that I would spend more than I would by buying the DVD.

So movies, I prefer to rent. The winds have been blowing in this direction since a movie was first shown on TV, and they’re only picking up more with things like Netflix or on-demand video from your cable provider. I can easily foresee a day when cable and satellite TV as we know them are extinct, replaced entirely by subscription and a-la-carte video on-demand services. Even closer to the present, I can imagine that I personally will leave cable TV behind in lieu of such a service. It’s getting there.

Music

Music, like video, is tied to a physical device for playing — a radio, a tape player, a CD player, or an MP3 player. When you’re watching a movie, however, you’re usually using a fairly large device (TV) and you’re staying in one spot. Music can be listened to virtually anywhere while doing virtually anything, so music-listenting devices tend to be much more portable. (Yes, I know, we can now watch video on our cell phones and PSPs and whatnot, but I say: meh. I want to sit in a comfy chair and watch a movie on a decently large screen.)

I have an iPod, and I buy music through the iTunes Music Store paying 99¢ a song. It works OK for me, although (1) I’m not thrilled about the DRM on philosophical grounds, but it lets me do anything I’ve wanted to do with it so far, and (2) I probably want a lot more music than I buy, since I don’t have an unlimited budget.

So what about “renting” music through a subscription service like Napster To Go? You download as many songs as you like from their library of 1 million tracks and listen to them as often as you like. The catch is, your downloaded music stops working if you stop your subscription. You can still pay 99¢ to burn a track to CD (if you’re scrupulous), which is yours in perpetuity, or at least until you leave the CD in the sun.

Having a million tracks at my disposal is tempting, but I’m not ready for a subscription service for my music, yet, for several reasons. This, like other music download services, locks you in various ways to certain players, formats, and services, and I’d at least prefer to own the songs and be able to convert them to other formats if something makes me change my mind. (Not to mention that Napster To Go in particular is Windows-only.) Moreover, because music is portable, the real killer app for music subscriptions will be the day when wireless access is so ubiquitous that there’s no reason for me to have to download music to my computer and then transfer it to my player, but just choose from the million songs to hear whenever, wherever (no, not Shakira). When this day arrives, I may be ready, but for now, I’m sticking with the iPod.

Other media?

What’s left? Well, periodicals and video games are all I’ve got off the top of my head, but give me a heads up if you think of more.

Many magazines, journals, and newspapers are already available in advertising-supported or subscription-based online formats. I use them this way all the time, and though I don’t usually pay anything (except the assault on my eyeballs from advertisements), often an institution I’m part of (university, library) does pay a subscription. There are a few magazines I like to subscribe to in hard copy, mostly for the reasons I buy books (as well as being portable in ways that electronic versions aren’t). And, I do like to get a real newspaper once a week to flip through, clip coupons, and work the crossword puzzle.

I don’t play many video games, so I’m not really in a position to judge whether there’s a future for subcription gaming. Some games are similar to movies, in that you finish them and then you’re done; others are the kind of thing you play over and over. Movie rental stores rent video games as well, so there must be some money in it, but whether it makes sense as a subscription, I’m not really sure.