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New RIM Streaming Music: $5 For 50 Songs?

Posted by Soulskill on from the opinions-are-like-music-services dept.

jfruhlinger writes with news that Research In Motion will soon jump into the music service market. The service will be available through BlackBerry Messenger, and will offer users 50 songs for $5/month, which they can then share with other people who own BlackBerries. "So why would anyone pay $5 a month to get 50 songs on their phone, when they can pay $10 a month and get an unlimited number of songs, that work on lots of different devices, from services like Rdio and Rhapsody? Reasonable question! But RIM seems to be assuming that its subscribers won’t ask. Instead it is playing up the notion that BBM Music will be about 'personalizing' your phone, in the same way that ringtones supposedly did a decade ago. Ringtones, as you’ll recall, let buyers play a few seconds of a song, and sold for a couple bucks, while full songs from Apple’s iTunes went for 99 cents. And for a few years, the music companies and the wireless carriers sold lots and lots of ringtones."

3 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Must...invent...something... by alphatel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or you can wait a few months and buy 50 shares of RIM for $5. How much does a deathknell ringtone cost?

    --
    When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
  2. Re:99 cents is too much these days by artor3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

    99 cents for a song isn't extortion. At worst, it's a price somewhat higher than you'd like it to be. The fact that you have the ability to take something without paying doesn't mean that someone is extorting you by asking that you give them a dollar as a reward for their hard work.

  3. Re:99 cents is too much these days by Dahamma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Someone wrote, performed, and recorded a song. If you would like to be able to listen to their work whenever you want, pay $0.99 for it (which is 1/2 of the cost of a fricking cup of coffee these days, and that will last you about an hour until you pee it out).

    Did they force you to download it and now demand money or they will break your fingers? No? Then it's not extortion.

    I don't get why people complain about this stuff so much. It's a completely elective entertainment expense, you decide if it's worth it and either buy it or don't...