ipad...ipaid... part 2

So as promised I am posting here my views on the value of digital content at least as I think other people may see it.... I'm just saying this is perhaps one opinion

The General Idea

I'm not sure what it is maybe its just the fact that the internet itself wasn't monetised straight away, maybe we can just blame it all on the Napster kid (sounds good!)
But for some reason or another I get the feeling that perhaps a fair few of the current generation of young adults who grew up with the internet as a given (18-28 lets say) take it as equally given that what they consume on the internet for the most part should be free!


The Maths

It goes something like this....

I paid $1,100 for this macbook and I think of all the films that I will watch on it.
Or for instance once I shell out $ 100-150 for a basic ipod, and think of all the 3,000 + songs it will hold
Flash forward to 2012 I paid $ 450 for this ipad and think of how I'm going to be able to carry around an entire library with me everywhere I go!

I am more than likely will spend 10+ hours a day on the thing doing whatever it might be, watching, listening, e-reading or otherwise consuming massive amounts of digital media
However...
I cannot very likely afford to pay $ 14.99 for a digital copy of each of the 8-12 films that I might easily watch in a months time , that adds up to anywhere between $ 120-180 a month

Or imagine trying to pay for the US TV shows that I could enjoy free of charge in the US but because of the Internet's apparent assumption of territories and regions (because people can't possibly enjoy entertainment/media from a country other than the one that they live in right?!)
I could be looking at a bill of nearly $65 a month just for my US TV shows alone!

I am much less likely to be able to afford what my music habits could very soon put me into even more debt considering I'm likely to get bored of 1 in 4 songs that I listen to after an average of maybe 7 days... So at one song a day 7 days a week around 30 songs a month that's $30

Now I've got an ipad and whist I haven't used it for e-reading as much as I thought I might lets say I decided to go completely digital, give up my beloved paper and ink books (they smell so good) and read all the titles I do in an average month on my ipad. At an average of $ 9.99 per trade paperback. If I read one or two of those a month and spread out the costs of my text books which in digital format coming to around $120 in e-book format (for those that are available in e book format) so I'd probably be spending another $30 or so a month on e-books or e-reading, even more if I paid for a guardian subscription rather than just viewing their tweets in my flipboard app

Soooo then I could go onto the cost of apps but I won't because to be perfectly honest I've not paid for a single app yet and it's going to have to be a really good one that comes out before I'm willing to go for anything other than the free ones and the lite version of some very good apps.

So if I add that all up it comes to around $ 300 dollars give or take every month for me to purchase the average amount of digital content that I would easy consume on any one of these three devices that I now own.

I couldn't help but do the maths and find that that for $300 a month 12 months in a year ($ 3,6000 a year spent on digital content) I could in buy nearly 4 macbooks, or 8 ipads, or 20 something individual ipods for the same amount of money.

So how does this figure? Does the digital content industry really expect me to pay $ 3,600 a year? Surely they'd be happy with at least half of that looking at the current situation they are in.... so I thought about the solution that everyone seems to be pointing to now....

The Solution ?

Spotify! Or maybe more generally the subscription model for digital content. I thought about the number of cumbersome Ads I am willing to put up with to get something for free and the cost of a subscription to not only spotify ($9.99 a month)... for music, but also maybe a net flix or lovefilms.com subscription at 7.99 a month, and spotify for books (currently only in beta) another $10-12 a month 9 lets say)
And under a subscription model I would pay around $28 dollars a month or $ 336 a year! That I can manage as its less than 10 % of what I would pay buying up all of that content bit, by bit, by bit..

Now I'm sure I'm not the first person to add up the costs for themselves but lets just use me as a case study of the maybe slightly more than average digital consumer aged 18-28

I'm really curious, and this is just me... but what do you think (does it work?!) Is the subscription model really sustainable ? Does it get the digital content industry a higher than they are currently getting ( in my case.. YES!) In every case maybe... no and sure their will still be those who revert to piracy but with an unlimited consumption level of premium digital content with no Ads I'm thinking more than a few of us would be tempted to go cold turkey and drop the piracy...
Am I right?

Comments? Conflicting opinions? Violent reactions?

ipad... ipaid .... right? !