Personally, I'm happy with the current set-up, as it suits my needs just fine. However, music streaming may be a wave of the future (though some of us will always prefer a physical copy of our music, movies, etc.).

Streaming music is music that's constantly received by an end user while being delivered by a streaming provider. Ideally, under the subscription streaming model, you could listen to "your" tunes anywhere you had an Internet connection.

Will such technology take off? The signs are mixed. Subscription services such as Rhapsody and Napster haven't found big audiences and are even losing subscribers. On the other hand, USA Today reports that what has changed is the popularity of free streaming services, led by Pandora, which has 40 million monthly listeners worldwide. You can't choose specific songs, but you can choose your favorite artists. Pandora then creates a music experience for you with similar-sounding music.

Lala differs from Pandora and iTunes in that you pay to listen to online streams -- at 10 cents a pop -- instead of buying the song outright. Lala also lets you transfer songs from your hard drive to a Lala online locker, making the songs available for listening in other locations.

Having the songs available at all places would be handy. However, I personally prefer to purchase songs. Besides, what happens when you don't have access to an Internet connection? What happens if rights holders or providers go out of business in the future?

On the other hand, Apple may have something else in mind. Here's what Brian Heater, writing for x PC World thinks will happen (and I hope he's right): "What Lala offers Apple is the ability to maintain its focus on music 'ownership,' while making said music available in the cloud. The service makes it possible for users to access purchased music online, meaning that music libraries aren't tied to a single machine. You can stream your entire collection on any PC -- and more importantly, mobile devices that have the Lala software installed. It's not quite the all-you-can-eat subscription service offered by the likes of Rhapsody -- but for those who have spent a lot of time and money compiling extensive electronic music collections, it may actually prove even better."

Now that's a plan that I'd love to see Apple implement. And it seems to fit into Steve Jobs' vision. In 2007, the CEO said that consumers weren't interested in "renting" music.

On a related note, in early 2008 the Yankee Group, a research firm, released a study showing that two fundamental shifts are driving the music industry -- digitization and direct-to-consumer transactions. As a result, US recording industry revenue had plummeted 25% since peaking at US$14.6 billion in 1999. By year-end 2006, it had declined to $11 billion.

Even as streaming music has the potential to grow in popularity, the importance of record labels themselves may decline (and that's not necessarily a bad thing). According to the Yankee Group, digital revenue (online and mobile) is growing, but is insufficient to offset declining CD sales.

The research group anticipates that, over the next several years, music industry revenue will begin to stabilize in the US, though at a lower level than previously seen. By the end of 2007, digital music revenue in the US grew to $1.98 billion, and will reach $5.34 billion by 2012. However, artists will increasingly keep the lion’s share of this revenue as record labels become marginalized.

“No industry has felt the impact of the ‘Anywhere Consumer’ more strongly than the recording industry,” says Michael Goodman, director of digital entertainment at Yankee Group. “It’s not just that the record labels are facing declining revenue; rather, the basic relationship between recording artists, record labels and consumers is in major flux. As bands retain ownership of their music, the record label’s role shrinks while the role of technology vendors and online music stores grow.”

Yankee Group predicts that within the US digital music industry, online music will grow faster than mobile music downloads and online single downloads will outpace album downloads or subscriptions. Despite wireless carriers’ best efforts, online distribution will continue to dominate the category, accounting for 80% of the industry revenue. Although the addressable market for music phones will have grown to more than 266 million, only 9% of mobile users will actively use them as portable music players.