Kevin Rose may have been stirring things up among Apple rumour-mongers today but a more interesting rumour was doing the rounds earlier in the week.  The suggestion, resurrected from a few months ago, was that Apple would soon launch a subscription plan for iTunes music downloads.

Such a move would certainly be welcome.  The idea of being able to fill up my iPhone with new albums without having to worry about individual purchases is fantastic.  Most competing subscription services lack iPod compatibility meaning they’re unlikely to ever hit mainstream acceptance. Emusic, which does offer iPhone compatible MP3s, has a far too limited catalogue of music to truly compete.

The assumption by most people so far has been that an iTunes subscription model would offer unlimited downloads.  Is that really likely though? I don’t think so and here are the reasons:

1. Would the Record Labels allow it?
They’ve certainly denied any kind of deal is on the table.  While other services like Napster offer unlimited  downloads, iTunes is way ahead in the music download market.  To offer unlimited downloads via iTunes would cut a huge number individual sales out of the digital market and the labels would be worried about losing out in a time when they’re desperate for all the money they can get.  While they may be okay with an iTunes subscription model, they’d want download limits.

2. Would Apple want it?
If a huge number of their customers started downloading everything iTunes has to offer (just because it was possible) that’s be a huge hit on Apple’s servers.  Having some restrictions makes sense from a technical point of view.

3. Is Apple capable of not disappointing?
While this isn’t a well-reasoned argument, Apple have certainly let their faithful customers down a lot recently.  From dodgy iPhone reception to a botched MobileMe launch, it’s been disappointments all-round recently.  Another disappointment wouldn’t be surprising.

So, while there may well be an iTunes subscription service sometime soon, don’t expect to be able to fill up that 1 Terabyte drive you’ve just bought.