Denon offers earbuds you’ll never actually own - but will never be obsolete either

Would you rather rent your earbuds than buy them, and get a free upgrade every year? That's what Denon+ is offering for its PerL and PerL Pro wireless earbuds.

Instead of paying up-front you subscribe for a flat monthly fee, and when a year's up you're eligible for an upgrade. Both sets of earbuds are decent too, having been well reviewed – we gave the PerL Pro the full five stars ourselves, for example.

The service is currently for US customers only and charges either $9.99 (about £7.50 / €8.65 / AU$15.45) or $14.99 (£11.30 / €12.97 / AU$23.18) per month depending on which model you choose.

Even better is that your plan also entitles you to various goodies, such as members-only music content, giveaways and other special offers.

You also get accidental loss coverage and Device Refresh. That latter one entitles you to a free upgrade every 12 months, or at your chosen Device Refresh interval.

It sounds tempting, but there are some important caveats.

Denon+ subscriptions: what's in the small print?

As Ecoustics reports, there are some key details to watch out for. The first is that the accidental loss coverage is a one-time deal, and charges a replacement fee.

The second is that if you end your subscription and don't return the earbuds within 30 days, there's a fee for that too.

Lastly, if you miss a payment your Device Refresh clock restarts – so if you've been a subscriber for 10 months and miss the 11th payment, your 12-month refresh period is reset to zero.

That all sounds reasonable though, so this could well be a service that'll take off.

The subscription price is lower than each pair's launch RRP, which definitely helps. The PerL buds were £189 / $199 at launch and the PerL Pro £299 / $349. On subscription, you'll pay $119 (about £89) and $179 (about £134) respectively over a year – although it's fairly close to their current street price as both sets have been on sale for a couple of years now.

We've also seen both go lower during events such as Black Friday.

The offer is also US-only for now, but it'll be interesting to see if it becomes available in other countries – and if other manufacturers follow suit. A subscription service is certainly a good way of keeping customers loyal or, if you're feeling cynical, locked in.