inputs/outputs

Based on the way the current market looks, ringtones are a terrible idea. I’ve only heard one good ringtone in my entire life, and it was my friend’s mother’s. A light marimba sound, loud enough to hear, but non-intrusive. My sister’s phone blasts ACDC whenever someone calls. I’m amazed that she hasn’t tired of it yet. As for me, I wrote my own ringtone.

The RIAA is trying to create a system where you can buy a CD single in a store for $6, and then have the ability to download the ringtone for that single onto your phone. The system is called Ringle. Let’s first take a look at the physical product: a CD single. I remember when these actually sold, before the iTunes store completely eradicated any need for them.

The two things that are wrong with this situation is that if physical CDs aren’t selling as well as digital music, there’s no way that a CD single is going to sell, especially for that price. Additionally, a ringtone generally lasts for about 10 seconds at most and is cut off when you pick up the phone. You only hear the first few bars of a song, if that. If a music lover really wanted to hear the song, they’d probably play it on their iPod, with the single that they bought on iTunes for a dollar. And if iTunes offer them a DRM-free version, they can pay an extra 20 cents and use the mp3 as a ringtone anyway.

When are those RIAA folks going to embrace the fact that digital music isn’t going to go away? Make the product useful in a way that can’t be digitally copied, and we’ll start to buy more of it. I don’t mean digital protection either. That’s a challenging goal since it will really involve some creative thinking, but the effort would be worth it for everyone.