We’ve already heard over and over again that sales of CD’s are down, way down. People are turning to online services like iTunes to get their music and therefore have no reason to go out and purchase entire CD’s from retailers. The recording industry isn’t willing to let CD sales slip away quite yet though, so they’ve come up with a new way that they hope will help. Coming this Fall, users will be able to purchase Ringles (not Pringles) which will be a combination of singles from an artist, and a ringtone.
The term Ringles was approved by none other than the RIAA who also designed a logo to help "brand" it. As mentioned, a Ringle will include three songs. One will be an original version of a song, the second will be a remix, and the third will be an older song from the artist. Additionally, a ringtone from the artist will be included. Thus far, Sony BMG (who developed the concept) and Universal Music Group are the only ones that will be making the Ringles.
While it may not sound like a terrible idea, I’m doubtful that it will be successful. First of all, each Ringle will cost anywhere from $5.98 to $6.98 which hardly seems worth it for three songs and a ringtone. I think consumers will quickly label Ringles a rip-off. Secondly, the music industry tried the whole "single" concept before and it didn’t really take-off. I don’t think adding a ringtone is going to make singles that much more appealing.
According to PC Magazine, we can expect to see these Ringles at some point in stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and Amazon. Anyone interested?
This is news why?
It’s more proof of what I’ve been saying, the music execs know nothing and they are freaking out about drops in sales.
. . . the music industry tried the whole “single” concept before and it didn’t really take-off.
Actually, singles used to be quite popular. People would just buy the single instead of the whole album or LP. In fact, it used to be that many hit songs weren’t released on albums at all, just singles. Also, the B-Sides on singles allow artists to release songs that their producers might not think would be popular enough for general release on an album.
People are turning to online services like iTunes to get their music and therefore have no reason to go out and purchase entire CD’s from retailers.
There’s still a reason. Most online downloads use lossy encoding, sub-par to what you’d get on a CD. I always buy albums I think are really good on CD, reserving online downloads for albums that only have one or two good songs on it.
In fact, I think the recording industry should be pushing labels to release DVD audio discs of their records; better yet, they could release albums with both the DVD and CD versions in it. The CDs would still be available for backwards compatibility reasons, while the DVDs would offer higher quality music for people who have appropriate equipment, or who want to rip the discs at the highest possible quality.
As for these so-called “ringles”: is the RIAA really this desperate?
Problem is the the recording industry doesn’t want you to rip music from any type of disc. They want to you to buy the CD and then pay extra for the “digital” copy, and even more if you’re going to use the track as a ring-tone. DRM isn’t about anti-piracy it’s about control. The music industry wants to take every dollar from you that they can.
For the same reason they don’t want to offer a higher quality disks. They believe the higher the quality the more likely the chance of “piracy”. In reality, they know that the higher the quality of the original purchase the less likely you are to buy another higher quality version.
Ringles are going to fail.
F*ck NO! I wouldn’t buy this sh|* even if they paid me… come on I would rather have the full CD for a couple bucks more, complete waste of everything to produce a CD with only 3 Songs in it. why don’t they just ship this on a 3.25 floppy and make them mp3z instead! I already think it’s horrible that we spend all this money on CDs but yet the artist can’t even utilize 100% of the disc, and 3 songs is like what 20% of disc usage?
That’s true, but most people just listening to the songs on their iPods won’t be able to tell much of a difference.
These Ringles are surely going to go down in history as one of the music industry’s biggest mistakes. This almost reminds me of Apple charging you twice to make a ringtone out of a song you already own for the iPhone.