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Music Industry Set To Introduce the "Ringle"
mrneutron2003 writes "The RIAA has officially backed a move by the recording industry to reintroduce the CD single. Populated with three songs and a ringtone, this brilliantly clueless idea is to be marketed as a 'ringle,' complete with an even more clueless retail price of $6-7 per CD. Apart from the fact the industry hasn't agreed on how the ringtone is to be redeemed (Sony BMG, the initial proponent of the idea, is the exception here), the pricing puts it way out of line with legitimate digital music downloads." At $7, retailers would enjoy a profit margin they haven't seen since the days of cassette tapes and vinyl.
THREE uncompressed (CD-quality) DRM-free songs for $6? That's about $2.00 per song, not much higher than Apple's DRM-free pricing.
In fact, since you're getting it uncompressed, I'm not seeing the problem here... Their pricing is in line with digital downloads.
Here's a question I'd love to ask the music industry:
How many times must I buy the same music in order to "legally" hear it on any music-playing device I own? (No, I will not tell you what devices they are, nor what formats they can play.)
Do you like Japanese imports?
... They are the 3 songs you like. Isn't that the whole point of downloading songs? Getting only the ones you want? This combines the worst of both worlds - high price and no consumer choice. Well, no choice other than not buying them. Which seems in line with the rest of the music industry in general.
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
Brilliant! Finaly, the solution to piracy! Increase the profit margin, how didn't they think of it earlier? ...wait...what???
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
I only know of one bit of media that would benifit from a re-release in its original format...Cheech & Chong: BIG BAMBU -those liner notes... ya just can't download art!
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
I, for one, really do stil want to buy plastic discs. It's just that I can traipse over to any major shop, and get a used or sale copy of the full album for less than they'd like me to spend on three songs.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Why No Mention of Apple's Profit Margin?
This pretty much is the usual from the music industry. Badly thought out plan that has no chance at all of succeeding spearheaded by some management guy that lives in a fantasy world of catch phases. I will bet that this will be dead before first quarter 2008.
Sure, this seems stupid, but consider some consumer behavior I've seen recently:
- A household where every family member has a Mac and an iPod. Family members often buy the same song instead of using sharing because it is "too difficult".
- A household where working computers are thrown out on a yearly basis and replaced with new ones because that's "easier".
- A household where computers with sensitive records are just left out on the curb.
Different households, all fairly affluent, all in the NYC area. So while ringles may be stupid to the Slashdot crowd, they'll sell to the people that are even dumber than the record execs.
Lose market share because customers don't perceive value.
Remove even more value from the product and raise the margin.
Profit !!!!
Who says this business thing is hard!
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
FTA:
Each ringle is expected to contain three songs -- one hit and maybe one remix and an older track -- and one ringtone, on a CD with a slip-sleeve cover. The idea is that if consumers in the digital age can download any tracks they want individually, why not let them buy singles in the store as well? It also enables stores to get involved in the ringtone phenomenon.
Wow. Only the recording industry and the government can write contradictions like that and not see the logical fallacy.
Apparently, the industry understands that consumers want their tracks individually, and wants consumers to get their individual tracks from retail outlets. So to facilitate this, they package the individual track with 2 other unwanted songs and a ringtone. Then they double the price of downloading the songs individually and force you to drive to the store?!?!
Wow. That logic is shocking. I just have to repeat it to actually believe that some executive thought this up: Consumers want songs individually, so lets package 3 songs together with a ringtone and double the price!
The person who came up with that idea probably makes more money than everyone who reads this post put together. JSDFKGLHADFYGUHQO@W*%ORILU@#WERLJKC!@%$)*
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
This is the problem with the music industry. The correct response in a capitalist system should be "if you don't want to put up with their crap, go to a competitor". But there are no competitors in the music industry. Music recordings aren't interchangeable. If I want Song Y by Band X, then I have to submit to Recording Company Z's terms. Song A by Band B is not an alternative. Even Song Y by Band B is not an alternative.
This is where the black market of copyright infringement comes from. There aren't any legitimate competitors, so people go to illegitimate competitors, who generally end up providing a better service all-round — not because they have lower costs, but merely because they don't try to force silly things like bundling and DRM upon the user.
If you can get it any cheaper than as part of a 13-CD $150 collection, send me the link and I'll put my money where my mouth is. I've been looking for a copy for months (it is available for piracy though).
Ok, it's easy enough to identify a problem, so how do you propose the system be changed?
Forbid artists from transferring copyright and ban exclusive record contracts.
Garbage's Subhuman and #1 Crush, two of my favourite songs ever, and both b-sides on the Vow single.
Umm... As you point out in your very next paragraph;
It may not be cheap, but it *is* legitimate.
And the death of the proper single would mean no more B-sides, which would mean no "Maggie May", no "Unchained Melody", no "Fool's Gold", no "I Will Survive".
This is a ridiculous argument. No artist deliberately sets out to write and record a b-side. They write a bunch of songs, and the good ones become a-sides, the okay ones become album tracks, and the crap ones become b-sides. Occasionally they get misclassified.
It's true that, historically, a lot of b-sides wouldn't have seen the light of day on their own merits, but this is because the act of publishing songs used to be prohibitively expensive. There's only so much room on an LP. There's only so much concept in a concept album. But this is no longer true. Record a song you don't think is very good? Well stick it up on iTunes anyway, and you might be happily surprised to find out that you have the next Unchained Melody. Or you might be proven right, in which case what have you lost? The ability to force other people to buy it anyway because they want a song that you bundle with it? If that's what you are after, fine, but don't pretend it's got anything to do with defending the existence of good but obscure b-sides.