Today, I buy all my music through iTunes. If it doesn’t exist as a DRM-free, 256kbps AAC, I don’t buy it. Sure, I used to buy CDs. But I’ve been spoiled by the iTunes way of life. Thirty second previews and a simple 1-click to download.

Click. Click. Click.

I have all my media in iTunes. If you’re not there, I’m not going to go out of my way to give you my money. If you make it easy for me to buy you in the format I want, take my $0.99.

And now that iTunes is providing movie rentals in Canada, I have a feeling that Blockbuster will face the same fate as the CD and record stores. I haven’t left my house to rent a movie since June when movie rentals first debuted on iTunes. If your movie isn’t on iTunes, I’ll rent something else.

One of the biggest problems with the iTunes Store —and every other online music store for that matter—is that they don’t easily allow you to discover new music. Sure, they have a “Just for you” section, and links to related albums, but a 30 second preview isn’t going to convince me to lay down $10 for a new album from an artist I’ve never heard of.

Then along comes the rumor of iTunes Unlimited:

For just $129.99 (or $179.99 bundled with MobileMe, or $99 for current MobileMe subscriptions), you would buy unlimited music access for one year. This would offer you 256 Kbps music, or as Steve would boom it, “The highest quality digital music subscription service ever.” You could download and play directly on your computer or iPhone/iPod and the option to “buy and keep” would replace the subscription version of a song with a downloaded version.

Of course, the argument against a subscription-based, ‘all you can eat’ music store is that you don’t actually own your music.

But with a music store the size of iTunes, I’d be more than willing to pay $10 a month to try out new artists and albums. I could experiment freely, with nothing holding me back from downloading an album. Or two. Or three.

This is an incredible opportunity for up-and-coming and indie artists. All of a sudden, you could have your music up on iTunes in front of the world, with no barrier to entry. Imagine that. Anyone with iTunes Unlimited can download your music for free. They don’t have to pay anything. They don’t have to leave their comfy sofa. Click. Click. Click. If you’re good, you’ll quickly move to the top.

One Entertainment Hub

The subscription model becomes even more exciting when you imagine the potential. iTunes has an incredible amount of media—what if for one set monthly fee, I could download all the music, TV shows, and movie rentals I want (with one rental at a time)? All this in combination with audio and video podcasts that are already free.

All of a sudden, iTunes becomes your one-stop place for any type of content. iTunes becomes your media center. Goodbye Rogers cable TV. Goodbye Blockbuster. Hello iTunes.

With an iTunes Unlimited subscription, you can download any media you want, when you want it: on your computer, your iPod, your iPhone, and your AppleTV. You may not own all this content and get to keep it forever, but you have the option to purchase the occasional CD or movie you want to add to your collection.

Apple can begin to sell iPods, iPhones, and AppleTVs with a free 3 month subscription to iTunes Unlimited, allowing customers to go home, fill their devices up with media, and discover the phenomenon of content over the Internet (not to mention locking them into iTunes Unlimited).

A Leap Ahead

With increasing competition from Amazon MP3 and other online music stores, iTunes has to re-spark it’s innovation in order to maintain it’s market dominance. iTunes Unlimited may just do that—turning iTunes from a simple online media store, to a global content delivery network.

I don’t imagine that Apple can launch iTunes Unlimited in September with TV shows and movie rentals on board. But it’s definitely a possibility for the future: one iTunes pass to rule them all giving you unrestricted access to all content on the iTunes Store.

I’d definitely cancel the cable for that.