At $99/Year Could Streaming Music Save MobileMe?

There have been a lot of rumors lately about the next iteration of MobileMe, potentially called, iCloud or apparently known internally at Apple as Castle.  All of this got me thinking.  We all know that MobileMe has been somewhat of a flop for Apple.  According to a recent report, Steve Jobs was so angry by how little success MobileMe has had to date that he appointed a new VP to head the division.  So how can Apple get MobileMe (or iCloud) on the right track (no pun intended)?

Well, what if Apple offered its music streaming service to MobileMe customers as part of a bundle.  A packaged deal if you will.  At $99/year, it’s less than $10/month which is very competitive within the music streaming market.  In fact, Apple would be able to undercut most of their competition and you can bet that MobileMe music streaming will be fully integrated within every single Apple device.

This is definitely one way to sell MobileMe.  Not only do would customers get all the benefits of MobileMe, they would get unlimited music streaming access on any Apple device all for just $99/year.  Music streaming service Rdio offers unlimited music streaming for $5/month, but it’s limited to only web access.  However, you can pay more ($10/month) for more features (e.g. syncing capabilities for offline access and access to mobile devices).  But at that price range, Apple’s MobileMe looks much more appealing.

Even if the price of MobileMe went up to $120/year, it still makes more sense to go with Apple’s service over Rdio’s or other competitors because you get more bang for your buck.  Apple has the knack for figuring out ways to continually add value to its products and services without changing the pricing and if the price does increase it typically still is appealing to consumers because of the added value.

If Apple wants to save its MobileMe service, I think this may just be the way to do it.