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Cellphone Songs Overpriced?
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.'"
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.
Unpretentious Sydney reviews by unqualified Sydney reviewers
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?
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 T-shirts have been replaced by ringtones.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 in my day we annoyed people with our stupid shirts, and uh, we were GLAD to have 'em!
"Value your freedom or you will lose it, teaches history.
'Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." - RMS
So yes, Slashdot is more 'political' these days. Is it such a bad thing?
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 songs STILL worth it? Theres iTunes and virtually free with any new pre-built computer CD burners for those with regular access to a computer. If you have an iPod (or more or less any other mp3 player), bonus points there. Some music CDs are now sold at discounted prices either through the bargain bin, used sales, trade-ins, coupons, etc. On top of all that, theres a lot of recent stigma against loud cellphones, use of cellphones in public areas is (mostly) banned (movie theatres), and of course theses the recent writing of some laws prohibiting driving while talking on a cellphone (even with 'hands-free' sets).
By the time you get through all the modern hassle of having a loud cellphone, you might as well just buy a cheap $50 or so portable CD player and use that in order to reuse your old CD music library. Got a big CD library, bonus points there. Too lazy to swap CDs? Drop an extra $50 for an iPod Shuffle (arguably the best mp3 player in terms of reliability-price ratio).
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.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Submitted by the same damn person. See http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=168870&cid=140 77544.
My other car is first.
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.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
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.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Carl Bialik has (at least) two accounts. One is 'Carl Bialik from the WSJ' and the other is 'Carl Bialik.' I have no objection to the first submitting WSJ articles, since it's obvious that they are submitted by a WSJ person, and people can decide whether to click on the links based on that (and the /. 'editorial' process can factor that in when deciding to accept things). I object to the use of the second account, however, since it is far less obvious.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
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.
These are the people that buy $100 shoes when they don't have enough to pay for their rent
A very good friend of mine escaped that world after having grown up in it. He now runs the franchise management of a growing coffee store company and owns several stores himself (and he's only 32). Has a great family too.
He's explained the ghetto problems in a manner I don't often see the hand-wringing "compassionate" types address. When you grow up there, you are constantly told to follow the order of the community's black leaders and never, ever exhibit independence or freedom of expression in any area except music, sports and clothing. Showing independent political thought or launching a business that the black community establishment doesn't control is dangerous and often leads to "unfortunate events" like accidental robberies where the gang thugs kill you.
And usually it never gets that far, since there is a strong cultural control over individual expression. Work hard in school and get great grades? Quit trying to be white. Get up at 5 AM and work hard on your business? White! Spend your welfare check on new neon lights for your car? Now you're behaving like a good negro. Better spend more on shoes... you don't wanna be a loser and buy usable $10 shoes at a KKK store like WalMart, do you? (There's considerable analysis on the reason most liberals despise WalMart is that it damages this model which has been so useful to them - kind of a "star belly sneeches" thing that has made stars cost too little for political leverage, but I digress!)
The worst thing he said is that people haven't figured out the white masters left and new black masters moved in their houses and took over. It's no different other than they're slaves to a black man now. About the only thing you can do is move out because being an independent thinker in liberal black plantation is a death sentence.