Subscriptions are key to download success: delegates agree technology still needs to improve.(Conferences)

Online music subscription services will not properly take off until the internet has fully transformed the industry, according to a panel of experts at this year's MusicWorks conference.

They argued at last week's event in Glasgow that the download business had evolved largely as a mirror of traditional music retail, with similar issues arising regarding sales strategy and promotion. But they believed subscriptions would prompt a big increase in the quantity and diversity of music consumed.

Scott Cohen, founder of US digital distribution company The Orchard, said, "There will always be a market for a la carte downloads, but the subscription model is like cable TV where you have a hundred channels available and you end up browsing through and watching things you never thought you would. Imagine how exciting that could be for the music industry."

Subscriptions are currently offered in the UK by Napster and enable users to pay a flat rate fee to access as much music as they want, providing an alternative approach to the majority of digital retailers who charge a fee per track or album.

"Downloads are very boring," said Musically consultant Paul Brindley. "They're not much of a sea change, but subscription is a whole different ball game. There's a service available in the US called Rhapsody which I have access to and I've found it's much quicker to type a name into the search engine than find the CD in my collection."

Subscriptions, the panel agreed, would help this situation by encouraging consumers to be more experimental in their listening. However, they added there was still much work required before the subscription model became the norm.

Beggars Group head of new media Simon Wheeler said his company was currently selling around 200,000 tracks per month and it was proving very difficult to account for these sales and ...