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Music Media Communications

Cellphone Songs Overpriced? 270

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the squeeze-em-till-the-money-stops-coming dept.
Carl Bialik writes "Sprint's music store, the first major legal music-download service accessible from cellphones, is charging $2.49 per song because the recording industry and the wireless carriers are engaging in 'a dangerous fantasy,' according to the Wall Street Journal. From the article: 'Since people will pay $2.49 to download a snippet of a song, there's no reason they won't pay that much to download the whole thing. It's an enticing prospect, but one based on the idea that ringtones and downloads are similar. They're not; customers don't see them the same way and won't pay the same price for them, and no amount of wishful thinking will make them change their minds.' Last week, Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg also criticized the pricing: 'For that kind of money, you'd better really, really, really want to download that new Kenny Chesney song, RIGHT NOW, before you can get to a computer.'"
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Cellphone Songs Overpriced? More

Cellphone Songs Overpriced?

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  • Didn't we just discuss this... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @02:35AM (#14088347)
    yesterday [slashdot.org]? I didn't realize the WSJ was so desperate for clicks.

    • Re:Didn't we just discuss this... (Score:5, Informative)

      by kaleposhobios ( 757438 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @02:37AM (#14088352)
      You beat me to this comment. But now I get to add:

      AND both submissions were by the same person. Q.E.D.

      • That now makes me a bit wary of the WSJ, it seems as if someone is merely trying to push some traffic. I wouldn't say that the actions of one persom necessarily reflects the whole organization, but it's something to watch.

  • People pay $2.49 for ringtones? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hokeyru ( 749540 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @02:38AM (#14088356)
    What's wrong with them?
    • If you want to make a ringtone, you have to download the MP3, then down convert to whatever format the phone uses, then truncate and then make sure that the sound comes out sounding okay by tweaking the voices, then you have to somehow transfer the song to the phone by either setting up infrared, usb bluetooth or some other tech, or you can pay 2.50 to have someone do it for you. Most people are not going to have tens of ringtones they are going to buy as most people use one ring tone on a regular basis. Al
      • Dude, it's a fucking ring tone. Use the default for crying out loud. How is a little tune to tell you someone has called you worth $2.50 US?
        • I don't pay for ring tones, but I know why people would. People like to customize things even if it doesn't really make any sense. That's why people put type R stickers and vtec stickers, which cost a lot more than 2.50 us.

        • Re:People pay $2.49 for ringtones? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by geminidomino ( 614729 ) * on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @05:29AM (#14088814) Journal
          There are good reasons to customize ringtones.

          I'm previously engaged (playing DQ8, sleeping, eating, engaged in biological recreation with my girlfriend, etc) and my phone is on the desk. It rings. I find it helpful to know if its my mom, brother, friend, girlfriend (obviously not in the last case above. ;)), or my monitoring server telling my shit's blowing up.

          Of course, I dropped the $10 on the moto USB cable to do it myself.
        • my cell phone actually "rings" and i always get a funny look when it does so in public. people cant believe id use a "ringing" tone for my phone.

          ill admit, i do have a couple of ringtones i downloaded since my sister works at US cellular and got them for me: "sit on my face and tell me that you love me" which i use for restricted numbers, and "o holy night" as sung by eric cartman, which ill be using between thanksgiving and christmas :D

          otherwise, it just rings. i have a couple of people who i use diff

        • You didn't think it through.
          A cellphone is a way of communicating. It is a fashion accesory, too.
          Just like the swiss-army knife wore coming out of the back pocket. Or a purse. Or a digital camera pouch.
          People buy cellphones because of teir color, or looks, _and_ its features, just like cars.
          And that's much more than 2.5 dollars.
          Paying 2.5 dolars more, just because you want to make a statement with your cellphone _sound_, too, doesn't look stupid, if you accept all the other fashion/looks related purchases.
          O
          • It is a fashion accesory, too.
            Just like the swiss-army knife wore coming out of the back pocket. Or a purse. Or a digital camera pouch.
            People buy cellphones because of teir color, or looks, _and_ its features, just like cars.

            See, funny old me, I buy knives because of their utility, and would do the same for a purse if I brought one, along with digital cameras. I also buy cars (well, one at the moment, but it looked strange) based on how well it can get me from A to B, and how much it is likely to cost me to
            • (-1, Redundant)
              I just said exactly that, that _some_ people don't follow trends, but that _they_ are the weird ones.

              Thinking it through... by your nickname, you seem Australian. I don't think I'm talking to you after what happened last week. They made Chengue cry. That's too bad. Bad Australians.

    • I would pay much more than that (Score:5, Funny)

      by commodoresloat ( 172735 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @04:30AM (#14088640)
      ...to be able to delete these annoying tones on other people's phones.
    • Here in the UK, people have been known to pay $15.

      However, they are pre-teens who are the victims of misleading advertising.

      If the music industry believes that its target audience is pre-teens who can be suckered with false advertising...

      Oh, wait..

      • In the UK, do they run TV commercials telling you to text "HOT HITS" to a certain number to get free ringtones?

        Over on this side of the pond I frequently see television commercials for free or low priced ringtones that you can get by sending a text message. If you read the fine print, it tells you that you are actually signing up for a subscription where they send you new ringtones every day or every week, charging you each time. I think this practice is scandalous because people are misled. The scariest

    • Well.. most ringtones I have seen have been under 2EUR but guess it's because you do not get nearly as much ringtones as "real music" obviously.
    • You don't know anyone with young teenage kids, do you?

      Pretty much every teenager in Europe has a cell phone, and most of them want to customize them in some way. Girls go for the Hello Kitty flashing led signal attenuator, boys go for their rock band sticker and studded leather carrying strap. Every model aimed at children are designed for aftermarket "tuning" upgrades, such as swappable cases in different colors and textures, neck clips, carrying cases and the like. You can get silk-screened boys-band case
    • A fool and his money are quickly parted. One of the safest business models is the exploitation the poor judgment skills of children, adolescents, and the poorly-educated.

  • Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Army of 1 in 10 ( 931706 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (01ni1ymra)> on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @02:39AM (#14088360) Homepage

    Why would I (or anyone else, for that matter?) want to pay $2.49 for a song I can only listen to on my cellphone when I could buy the same song from iTMS for $0.99 and listen to it on my iPod and computers, and burn it to CD then listen to it anywhere?

    • Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by drgonzo59 ( 747139 )
      I got some karma so I'll go ahead and burn some...

      Have you been to your local poor neighbourhood, read "ghetto" (oops karma -%25). You will see mostly black teenagers with parents on welfare but who wear $100 Nike or Fubu shoes and have $200 cellphones. They can't read, count and they can't talk coherently in English but they can and do use their 'tricked out' phones, they know how to text message (albeit in Ebonics), download ringtones, send pictures and so on. And there is your target customer base - the

    • Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Wavicle ( 181176 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @03:14AM (#14088466)
      If you RTFA, they tell you.

      Cell phone ring tones are about identifying you to the rest of the world: "Look I have the latest 50 Cent song as my ring tone, I am def gangsta cracker fan boy!" They appeal to people in a group identity kind of way.

      A song you listen to on your iPod is there only for you.
      • Cell phone ring tones are about identifying you to the rest of the world

        In that case shouldn't they be paying me to advertise? On that note: You'd have to pay me a lot more money than $2.49 US to have the latest 50cent tune as my ringtone/ringtune.

        Of course when I was doing some rep stuff for a wireless company in Canada I did dl quite a few tunes since they were "free" (didn't cost me anything).. nothing turns heads like a 25 year old male with a Britney Spears "ringtune" (*walks away humming toxic).
        • nothing turns heads like a 25 year old male with a Britney Spears "ringtune" (*walks away humming toxic).

          This is going to come across as trolling; however...

          I'd guess that 25 year old males with Britney ringtones aren't as unusual as you might think; but I *would* assume that a rather high proportion of them are gay.

          As for the heads turning, either they're surprised work colleagues who hadn't previously questioned your sexuality, or they're other gay men checking you out.

          Stick to the Britney-with-h
      • It's a good thing these cell phone users can't see thought bubbles over peoples' heads, because they'd get a taste of what most people really think of their precious little ringtones.

    • This is gonna crash in flames, but what the hell, I just got over a bout of god alone knows what from a south east asian jungle, and I'm feeling punchy. What sort of a sad act actually pays for music in this day and age? I mean kerrist, wake the fuck up, welcome to the information age, son!

      Oho and hey, on a moral level its like Marv said in Sin City, applied to the RIAA et al...

      "I like hitmen. No matter what you do to them, you don't feel bad."

    • It's convenient! Just think about when you're away somewhere and just get this urge to HAVE to download a specific song, regardless how shitty quality and price it is, and you didn't have the mp3 player with you or couldn't wait with it until you had... Maybe it could even happen once a decade or so for me!

  • Highest Rated Comments From First Posting (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @02:42AM (#14088371)
    #1: [slashdot.org]
    When you think about the ridiculous prices people pay for ringtones it's not that crazy. So maybe it'll work for the songs that you just HAVE to have right now, but otherwise why wouldn't you save a few dollars and just wait till you're home and get onto the iTunes store?

    #2: [slashdot.org]
    First: Mossberg is almost right.

    The other is the cellphone carriers, or, as I like to call them, "the Soviet ministries," which too often treat their customers as captive and refuse to allow open competition for services they offer over their networks."

    Should be The other is the U.S. cellphone carriers... since competition works and takes care of this in all other markets.

    In Sweden downloadable music for cellphones is 9 cents (0.69 Swedish Crona) per song from ComvIQ [tele2.se].

    Second: No-one outside the U.S. will ever buy music just for their cell phones. Everyone over here uses SonyEricssons excellent K750 [sonyericsson.com] or W800i [sonyericsson.com] , syncing them with iTunes and MacOSX using scripts like iTMW [fidisk.fi] or apps like Dreamsicle [kaisakura.com].

    Third: I bet a case of beer that SonyEricsson [sonyericsson.com] will include iTunes [apple.com] in their cell phones during 2006. The demand is huge and they know they will have to do it, sooner or later. Nokia will also include iTunes as soon as they realize how Real sucks bigtime.

    #3 [slashdot.org]
      This type of high pricing is increasing the copying of music and other illegal activities ..... if these songs are priced properly then i think it will help in stopping piracy.

    There.. now the discussion can end.
    • >Third: I bet a case of beer that SonyEricsson [sonyericsson.com] will include iTunes [apple.com] in their cell phones during 2006. The demand is huge and they know they will have to do it, sooner or later. Nokia will also include iTunes as soon as they realize how Real sucks bigtime.

      You think Sony-Ericsson will produce a mobile that uses iTunes sometime in 2006?

      You got your bet.

      SonyEricsson might be a join venture and not wholy a part of Sony but I can't possibly imagine them working with Apple on this

  • For some people (Score:2, Interesting)

    by zegebbers ( 751020 )
    the convenience is worth it. (Some) people were saying that itunes wasn't worth it - why pay the same price per track as a cd for a lower quality version? If it's overpriced, the price will end up dropping.

    • Re:For some people (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Lord Kano ( 13027 )
      There's no accounting for taste, some people actually like to get fucked in the ass too.

      I've never taken one in my pooper and I've never overpaid for digital audio files. And I'll never do either.

      Just because some people actually like to do both doesn't mean that the rest of us should do anything besides laugh at them.

      LK

    • Key word : were (Score:2, Interesting)

      by MMaestro ( 585010 )
      (Some) people were saying that itunes wasn't worth it

      Bolding mine.

      Fast forward iTunes to 2005 and iTunes is so worth it, the RIAA is trying to muscle in on pricing. Throw in the MPAA, whos only saving factor right now is the fact that movie sizes are still fairly large and cannot be easily traded online (700 megs is still fairly large), and you have these two **AA groups suddenly muscling into legal online trading business Mafia-style.

      Same with cellphone songs. Fast forward to 2005 and are cellphone song

  • Seems logical enough (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bjorniac ( 836863 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @02:54AM (#14088403)
    I see a lot of people questioning the reasoning here, saying that it's ridiculous to pay $2.49 or whatever for a song. The premise, however, is that people are ALREADY PAYING JUST THAT for a small section of the song as a ringtone so they will probably take the whole song for the same price. Hell, if they offer the song and ringtone snippet combined for the same price, they're probably onto a winner. I know that neither you (informed Slashdot reader) nor I (cheapskate student) would pay this much, but if people are already laying out the cash for this stuff why not sell it this convenient way?

    • Re:Seems logical enough (Score:4, Funny)

      by oldwolf13 ( 321189 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @03:04AM (#14088435) Journal
      I paid $2 for a scooby doo ringtone.

      Only reason is so my phone would be customized to me... now I know it's overpriced... but it was just one ringtone... I might have downloaded 4 in my life.

      I'm sure a lot of people are like me... think it's overpriced.. but hell... for a one time fee, I can live with it for my scooby-phone.

      Now if you want me to start downloading a lot of music... well even 99 cents is too much... try $.75

      I can't see this succeeding

      -1 to any scooby disses!

  • Another thins I think they miss (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @03:01AM (#14088425)
    Is quantity. People only use a couple ringtones at most, and generally only one even if their phone supports more. A new one is generally only purchased when they grow weary of the old one, which lasts for awhile. Thus, it doesn't seem so bad since you don't pay that often.

    Music isn't the same thing, people want a lot of music. Nobody listens to the saem song on loop, they listen to a variety, and with MP3 players a bigger variety than ever. Thus it's bought in larger bulk. Well, that means the price needs to be lower, so people will balk and not pay it.

    It would be like noticing that I'll pay $40 for a bottle of Champagne and thus assuming I'll pay the same for a pack of soda. Nope, sorry, all other considerations aside, I consume too much soda. I can swing the $40 once a year or whatever, not once a week.
    • I think you're missing an important target group there..
      While old farts (myself included) are often happy with the default ringtones, plenty teenagers around here (Sweden) have 20+ ringtones on their cells. They also switch them almost daily (or several times during a day), compare them with friends (often by playing them loudly in public places), swap them etc. etc. Also, background pics, funny MMS templates and screensavers are popular with this crowd. They also appreciate and use the features I often fin
      • Oh I have no doubt they have more ringtones than useful, hell I consider anything other than a basic ringtone unuseful. However my observation is that the ringontes don't change that often, likely because it gets hard to notice your phone (your mind is good at tuning in on some things and out the rest). I work on a university campus in the US and I'm still young so I have a fair bit of exposure to it. Seems like most of them buy several they like and stick with one, then when something new catches their fan
    • Nobody listens to the saem song on loop...

      Beware of statements containing "everybody" and "nobody".

      Just because something is outside your experience don't mean that "nobody" does it.

      Offtopic, I know, but still important. If more people could incorporate this into their worldviews, there'd be less friction based on ignorance.

  • generation of iPod comes out. If this, and the Rokr, succeeds then Steve Jobs knows that he needs to develop an iPod with a WiFi chipset and iTMS interface. If it fails he stays the Hell away from it. Has anyone done any research on how well these all-in-one devices are selling? Yeah, I know tons of people with camera phones, but no one uses them, is anyone really going to go for this or just get an iPod?

  • It's pretty simple (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Mancat ( 831487 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @03:04AM (#14088436) Homepage
    People are willing to pay the seemingly high price of $2.50 for a ring tone because they will buy them much less often than they buy songs. Most people will buy one ringtone and use it for a month, more or less, then move on to another one. When they go to buy songs, through iTunes or some other service, they're usually buying multiple songs at once, fairly often. At that point, $2.50 becomes far too high a price to the consumer to continue buying songs at that rate.

    It doesn't take a lot of common sense to figure this out. Why the music peddlers can't figure out is beyond me. They're always trying to push the boundaries of what the consumer will allow in the way of pricing. Right now, iTunes has it just about right. People are willing to pay .99c per song, and what's more is that they actually want to do it. They don't hesitate and think, "is this worth it?" A few dimes over that price is all it really takes to make them decide "no, it's not."

  • Future Slashdot stories (Score:5, Funny)

    by dgrgich ( 179442 ) <drew@NOsPaM.grgich.org> on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @03:06AM (#14088442)
    Water too wet?

    Microsoft intent on world domination?

    Apple makes pretty hardware?

    Leeroy Jenkins rules at WoW?

  • avoid the whole thing: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by drijen ( 919269 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @03:11AM (#14088455)
    For over a year now, i've been using audacity and kandy to make my own ringtones and transfer them via a $11 USB cable to my Motorola V180. Voila, free ring tones from my massive collection of music.

    Not only that, but i can generally make much better sounding snippets, and pick the part of the song that i like (or the whole thing).

    This works great for wallpapers made with gimp/xv/imagemagick as well.

  • I'm really starting to feel my age... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I remember reading "Rock and Roll" magazines when I was a teenager and seeing page after page of ads for t-shirts, bandanas, stickers, etc.

    I was browsing magazines a few months ago and saw that one of the books I used to read was still being published. For kicks I bought a copy. Later on the train depression overtook me as I realized that...

    1. I had no idea who ANY of these bands were, nor did I want to.

    2. T-shirts have been replaced by ringtones. Page after page after page of RINGTONE ADS. Ai yi yi...

    Back
  • This may not unseat the pyramids.

  • If you consider... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt.nerdflat@com> on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @03:47AM (#14088538) Journal
    ... why people pay anything at all, even one cent, for a ringtone, you'd have insight into why they are also willing to pay $2.49 for it, and why they wouldn't be willing to pay the same price for the "privilege" of downloading it onto their computer or mp3 player.

    Need a hint? Consider when's the last time you heard a cell phone ring and it actually sounded like a ringing phone of some sort?

    Here's another hint. It has less to do with the songs or the artists than it does with the psychology of the consumer and their own egos.

  • Track costs (Score:2, Insightful)

    by coleblak ( 863392 )
    would be a lot more feasible if they charged a percentage of what a cd costs. If it's 16.99 for a CD by a specific artist and you want a track off of it, that track should cost a dollar oh seven. Making prices the same as what the disc would cost at the store is logical. Which means, obviously, the RIAA won't go for it.
  • They forget about people who dont have a computer or inet access to download an mp3. And when your out and about, 1.99 or so for a ringtone is a nice impluse buy.

    And for ringtone sites, they have to pay kick backs to the telco they work with, unless you are a 3rd party site not linked on your "walled garden" homepage on your phone's ringtone site.

    Also size, ringtones are small files compared to a 192k full length mp3, and most phones have limited memory.

    I guess in a couple years when everyone has umts and
    • I guess in a couple years when everyone has umts and a gig of memory in the phones the WSJ article might make some sense about price fixing.

      And who controls that, since such technology would be easy to do right now? Ah, right, the phone company.

    • They forget about people who dont have a computer or inet access to download an mp3. And when your out and about, 1.99 or so for a ringtone is a nice impluse buy.

      Hrm... But my high end Toshiba cell phone cost more than a barebones PC and I pay SprintPCS more a month than I do Comcast.

  • Sigh (Score:2, Insightful)

    by nexcomlink ( 930801 )
    Sadly I know many people who would buy a song for $2.49. They do what ever is popular and basically go around playing tunes on there phones while walking down the hallway. This might not make sense for the common adult. But for a teenager to have what's "hot" these days and having full length ringtones is all what they really go for these days. So expect to see a but of teens all huddled around using the cellphone as a stereo. I seen it happen with little ringtones which only last 15 seconds. So I am not su

  • Why are people paying for ring tones anyway? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Hamster Lover ( 558288 ) * on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @04:17AM (#14088613) Journal
    My friend just bought a new Samsung phone (or was it LG?) through Rogers here in Canada that supports wave or Mp3 downloadable ring tones. He didn't want a musical ring tone he wanted a real mechanical bell ring like that from his old rotary dial phone. We recorded the phone ring as a wave file and uploaded it to the phone, easy as pie. We could have chosen any song in his collection without purchasing a ring tone, although Rogers certainly offers that option.

    I know at least a half dozen other friends whose phone will do the same thing given the proper cable. Why are people paying for ring tones? It must be convenience or perhaps its due to Rogers not crippling the features of their phones like other carriers in the U.S.
    • your friend was lucky he got a good phone.
      I bought a phone and the USB data cable.
      Then I install the software and try to upload a wav... "this is not a generic COM: port".
      oops. so I look up in the docs, nothing. I look in the user support. "We support only our brand cables. Third party cables don't work." Yep, mine is 3rd party, official cables are unavailable in my country and inporting one would cost twice the price of the phone.
      So I keep looking on forums. People say nobody got the USB cable to work, but
    • ...he wanted a real mechanical bell ring like that from his old rotary dial phone. We recorded the phone ring as a wave file and uploaded it to the phone, easy as pie.

      Hey! Is that copyrighted? Can you put it up somewhere so I can download it? Seriously! That is so retro it's delicious!

  • Future Slashdot Headlines (Score:5, Funny)

    by lpangelrob ( 714473 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @04:39AM (#14088662)
    Price of Bottled Water Suspiciously High
    from the I-got-ripped-off-at-Great-America-again! dept.

    Brand Name Drugs Surprisingly More Expensive Than Generics
    from the v1@gr@-isn't-a-generic? dept.

    Study Finds Americans Spend Way Too Much Money On Pointless Gadgets
    from the look-at-me-I-have-a-clapper dept.

  • Voltaires' Bastards (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JumpingBull ( 551722 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @04:40AM (#14088664)
    Is it just me, but has the corporatist agenda suffered a complete disconnect from reality?
    Perhaps John Raulston Saul *is* the lone voice crying in the wilderness...

    We are not just wallets to be picked clean in the most expedient way; perhaps it is time to remove the fictional person status from corporations, and make some other legal arrangement that would involve more of an explicit social contract.

    As it now stands, the corporations have taken over much of the public dialog.

    Having a moral finesse less then your average alley cat, they strive to offer the best "shareholder value" by an official policy that appears to be one of rapine and pillage.

    Perhaps we should have "The Corporate Hun" award?
    Or perhaps the Corporatist Pravda where the Official Truth can be promulgated unto the masses?

  • What I don't get (Score:5, Insightful)

    by el_womble ( 779715 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @04:40AM (#14088665) Homepage
    Is why people don't put the songs on their phones themselves? They're quite happy sending photos to each other via bluetooth and downloading songs to their iPods so why don't they download songs to their phones?

    I've been doing it for a 4 or 5 years now (initially with IR and midi which I could understand was probably beyond most) but now that its just a case of dragging an iTunes song too your desktop then pressing cmd-shift-b (or right clicking it and choosing send file) to send it to your phone it amazes me that people don't do it more often.

    I guess this is the point that the poster was trying to get across. People really don't associate iTunes music with ring tones. It's completely seperate in their heads. One's an impulse buy that they can do whilst watching TV, or waiting for a bus, the other is a considered purchase, even if it is half the price. The only thing that could change that is if Apple introduce a 'make ringtone button' to iTunes - that would REALLY piss off a lot of people (except of course the customers).

     
    • The reason why most people (note: not the minority of geeks here on slashdot) don't do that is because they don't want to bother, may not know how, or don't know they can. Its not like the cellphone companies are pushing the datacords as much as they are ringtone services. The companies know how much more money they make off of ringtones, so they advertise that as THE way to get ringtones. Frankly, they would be stupid to do otherwise.

      But you really would be amazed at how many tech savvy people out there

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • What we need is (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Council ( 514577 ) <rmunroe@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @05:43AM (#14088857) Homepage
    customers don't see them the same way and won't pay the same price for them, and no amount of wishful thinking will make them change their minds.

    Man. If only we had some sort of a SYSTEM for determining what things should be priced, some sort of an open market in which companies could set prices and see how many people are willing to pay that price. That would be great.
  • Isn't this the good thing about capitalism? The Market will answer the question as to whether $2.49 is too high a price. If Sprint has done their homework they've had employees sweat the details of trying to predict the acceptable price point for their service. If they charge too little, they leave money on the table; if they charge too much, few people buy the offering - then you'll either see the price go down or Sprint retract the offering. Basic Econ/Marketing. Too high for YOU is not necessarily too hi

  • No No No (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mr_Silver ( 213637 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @06:32AM (#14088978)
    Sprint's music store, the first major legal music-download service accessible from cellphones

    As someone who set up and managed a major legal music-download service accessible from cellphones over three years ago I really wish the Slashdot editors would actually verify "first" claims like these.

    Oh yes, and in case you were wondering, the music tracks were overpriced back then too.

  • People PAY for ringtones? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ajs318 ( 655362 ) <sd_resp2@@@earthshod...co...uk> on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @07:11AM (#14089087)
    My old Nokia 3210 had a feature called "composer" where you could type in a tune, note by note, up to 50 notes long. You got three octaves including accidentals, but only one timbre {"tinny little mobile phone speaker"}. Still, if you were canny, you could fit in just enough of the tune to recognise; and 50 notes is actually long enough to answer a telephone, so nobody is going to notice if it stops short.

    My new Sony Ericsson {bought before the rootkit debacle, honest!} k750i supports the ability to download ringtones from my phone company's overpriced music store, but it also has several wireless transfer modes. And although the phone refuses to allow you to send a paid-for tone by bluetooth or infrared, there is one thing it can't or won't stop me doing, one wireless transfer mode that is available unconditionally.

    If I press Menu, Entertainment, Record Sound, Select, then it uses the phone's own mic to record a sound bite -- which I can later use as a ringtone, and even send to other people by BT or IR. And it works better than you might think. Modern phone mics are quite directional; it has automatic gain control; and the ultimate frequency response is limited at playback time by the ringer speaker. These are all factors that work in your favour. What can the phone manufacturers do about this? Not a lot. They can't very well make phones with no mic; though I admit, I would certainly buy one for my mother if they did .....

    I can get all the ringtones I want, just from watching the TV adverts for them -- so I must be saving a fortune! Although admittedly, it is kind of like a "walk instead of taking the bus - save a pound; walk instead of taking a taxi - save a fiver" saving, cos it's not money IO would ever have spent -- if I couldn't get them for free, I would be more than happy to do without.
    • Huh?

      Well, my S-E K750i can use any MP3, WAV or MID files as ringtones. And I can transfer them via Bluetooth OBEX or USB. If you can't do that with your phone, you've been roally screwed over by your phone company.

      On a side note, my phone even works as a decent MP3 player - sure, not in the iPod league, but it came for free with the phone and only one gadget to carry in my pocket.

      Shows again that the different parts of Sony don't have that much in common - especially not the S-E phone joint venture an
  • Sprint isn't forcing people to pay this amount. In fact, I doubt people will. Since Sprint is the first to market with this service, I suspect that rival carriers will discunt their own offerings to try and cut into the market. Over time, supply and demand will force prices down.

    Note that this should still have some effect, even if Sprint phones are locked into Sprint ringtones. Those who absolutely have to have a song at this price will probably consider switching services to a cheaper alternative.
  • Virtually everyone in this forum says they would never pay $2.49 for a SONG. Duh! Nobody in this forum thinks you should have to pay for software either. Welcome to capitalism and open markets.

    The price will settle where it optimizes revenue. If $2.49 is too high someone else will come along at $1.99 and steal sales away. Sprint is taking advantage of being the first in the market (in the US) to offer such a service. Personally I think they are being foolish -- given the whole DRM situation and the poten
  • Just type in 'free ringtone software' in google and you can find software to make your own ringtones for the whopping price of $0.00.

  • Let the market work it out (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Luscious868 ( 679143 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @09:35AM (#14089537)
    If cellphone songs are overpriced, I'm confident the market will work it out. People just won't buy. I personally don't see much of a point in having a cellphone / mp3 player combination, especially if there is no way to get the overpriced songs you order from your cell provider off of your phone and into a format that you can play on your PC or other portible music player. I'll stick with iTunes and my iPod. Oh and before anyone jumps on my case about the DRM on the songs you purchase from the iTMS, it's about the easiest stuff to get around on the planet. There are tools to strip the DRM and get a plain old AAC file or you can just burn them to CD and re-rip to mp3. Is there bit of a quality loss? Yes. Is it noticeable to me? No.

  • Slightly Offtopic but Interesting (I hope) (Score:3, Informative)

    by Halo- ( 175936 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @09:59AM (#14089693)
    Was I the only geek who got excited that the WSJ article linked to Wikipedia? (Granted it was to the article about "Crazy Frog" but still...)

  • Anyone who pays for a cell phone ringer is severely retarded. Give the money to me instead and I'll kick you in the pants. You'll get the same result.

    -Nick

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