While the RIAA scrambles to discover new revenue streams to turn around sliding profits, they go and create a product that demonstrates exactly how out of touch they are with consumer trends...
...the "Ringle."
Yes, the "ringle" - it's the unholy union of the nearly defunct CD Single with ringtones. Each "Ringle" will feature one popular track, one (possible) remix, and an older track from the same artist - oh and the ringtone.
And the distribution medium of choice? Well, the CD of course! Complete with a slip-cover!
The geniuses at Sony BMG Music Entertainment (who came up with the ringle concept), and Universal Music Group will release around 50 and 20 titles, respectively, in the coming months. And Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Amazon will be the choice retail outlets selling ringles to the unsuspecting masses (which will amount to nobody).
But it doesn't stop there. Because the price for the "ringle" is expected to be come in at a whopping... strap in folks... $6 to $7 per Ringle. That would give the music industry a 31% to 42% gross profit margin. And profit margins are what really matter (not compelling products obviously).
[Reuters via TechCrunch]
(image courtesy of toothpaste for dinner)
Ringle's sound like a snack food..... Like - NOTHING beats a Ringle and a cold one !
At $7.00 a Ringle, you see why people pirate music and movies from the internet.....
RIAA = Greedy Lawyers
How much per song is a Ringle compared to a typical CD's cost per song?
DUMB!!!!
RIAA = Incompentent and out of touch fat cats who only care about money for themselves.
This idea might have worked if they called the Doc and Marty to borrow the Delorean to go back in time say, 6-7yrs ago? "1.21 JIGGAWATTS!!!! Great SCOTT!"
RIP RIAA
Recording
Industry
Assholes
Anonymous
I can download single songs for 99 cents to $1.29 and ringtones for a couple of bucks. What are these guys thinking???
Are they kidding themselves? If they include remixs it will sure to fail. Remixs have never been good nor have mashups.
These guys are totally out of touch with today's typical music consumer.
I still don't understand what a Ringle is.
The traditional music business is wedded to the physical object (like the CD) because it's how they have historically managed to monopolize the distribution of music and control access to it.
Once it dawns on these crooked assholes that, without the physical object, they can screw the artists out of MUCH more royalty money then they'll potentially lose (no physical inventory to account for) and that distribution by download promises virtually infinite profit per unit, they'll stop worrying so much about piracy.
The problem is that by giving you a physical object (i.e. CD) with your purchase, they can charge $15 and a lot of people think that they are paying for the production costs and the disc itself. Once the industry starts selling just the music with no medium on which it is stored, people get suspicious and angry. You can buy an album for $10 on iTunes, or buy the actual CD for $15, yet the CD does not cost $5 to make.
There are enough idiots out there who will pay $6 for 3 songs and a ringtone as long as it is on a CD.
I have a stupid question. How do the non-tech saavy folks who would be dumb enough to by this thing get the ringtone off the CD and onto their phone?
MarkS, I really do not think that people think they are paying for production costs but rather if they are actually receiving something for what they pay for. A CD is something you hold it has substance. A music download has no substance. That is way I am in sales not insurance sales. Insurance sales you give someone a piece of paper it really has no meaning except for what is on the paper. What I sell is something you can see and explain to people. I actually bought a CD a couple of months ago because I would rather import it into itunes then to download them. One of these days I might convert but haven't yet.
I do still believe that the music industry is very out of touch.
"The problem is that by giving you a physical object (i.e. CD) with your purchase, they can charge $15 and a lot of people think that they are paying for the production costs and the disc itself."
Yup, the physical object connotes "expensive" to a lot of people. The more that people see that you can get music without it being on a piece of plastic, though, the harder it will be to maintain that illusion.
I think we can all agree that no matter WHAT form music takes in the future, the music industry will be devoted to screwing over artists out of as much money as much as possible. In a changing world, it's good to see that SOME traditions are still with us.
My Name is Ringle! This whole thing is a curse and a scourge. Embarrassing to be linked to it. They should pay me - and all the Ringles in the country - for defamation of character!