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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.'"

2 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Didn't we just discuss this... by kaleposhobios · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    oh, your post got a score of 2 and mine only scored 1. well, i guess you lose some, and then you lose some more...

  2. Ring-tones? by eric76 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I wouldn't even pay 5 cents to download a ringtone.