I find this trend vile and obnoxious. I don't want a relationship with Apple. I want to buy music, not install a parasitic middleman between me and the outside world. I encountered the same situation with Avid/Sibelius notation software. Sell me the fucking software update and get the hell out of my life. I don't want a subscription contract with yearly renewals. Aaaarghh!
You will be crushed
like a bug under the unfathomable weight of Apple's (Google's, Amazon's, Di$ney's, Facebook's, Adobe's etc.) massive corporate jack boot. Everything is moving toward the subscription model--all the better to control you and surveill your every single move. As one of many examples, many photographers are hugely unhappy with Adobe's decision to move not only Photoshop, but also Lightroom, to Creative Cloud subscription and no longer offer them as stand-alone software (contradicting their earlier stated position on the latter). I will likely dump everything Adobe after Lightroom is no longer functional, along with Windows in favor of a Linux/Darktable work-around.
At least with software, there are free-ware alternatives in some cases. With music, movies, and the like, there are often few (legal) alternatives. We are huge fans of Tony Bourdain's shows, and have recently had to bite the bullet and buy the most recent seasons of
Parts Unknown from Amazon video, since apparently no DVDs will be made from these. Realistically, there are advantages to this--IF Amazon does not get cute and pull them whenever they jolly-well feel like it (What they did with Orwell's
1984 being a prime example!). The downside is of course that you are at the mercy of Amazon and your ISP, who have wormed their way into yet another aspect of your life and privacy.
While it is still legal, it seems that the only alternative to unlimited corporate power over my listening is to continue to do what I've always done--BUY the discs (LPs and CDs) and digitize them and curate them myself. More work than most are willing to do, but worth it for me. I would not be surprised if the day is coming when ownership of books and discs will be outlawed, and you will be required to turn yours in--you terrorist.
The day when some
d-bag Pharma Bro scumbag hard-working, job-creating entrepreneur copyrights some of your genes then declares you in violation of copyright for continuing to live is likely also coming. Pay up or die slave!