New iTunes business model: all you can listen?

Apple’s iTunes is aiming to make its catalog more accessible — a whole lot more accessible. The company is hoping to soon sell iPods and iPhones that would grant customers access to its entire six million songs for one fixed price or monthly fee, straying away from its current 99-cents-a-track model.

According to several news sources, such as the Financial Times and the Telegraph newspaper, Apple is in talks with major record labels in attempts to secure a deal that would allow the company to sell new iPods and iPhones that would support the “all you can eat” model.

The technology giant has said the deal would be similar to Nokia’s “comes with music” contract launching later this year, which will allow customers to download an unlimited amount of songs for Universal’s catalog.

At this point, it’s unclear how much the fee would be for the new price plan or even if the labels — or the artists concerned — will accept Apple’s new plan.

One executive said the research had shown that consumers would pay a premium of up to $100 for unlimited access to music for the lifetime of the device, or a monthly fee of $7-$8 for a subscription model.