Ring Tones Will Save the Music Industry 271
tabdelgawad writes "Well, not quite, but according to Jay A. Samit, senior vice president for new media at music label EMI Group PLC, quoted in this Washington Post article, "This is huge. This is the largest growth area for music companies and our artists". The article goes on to prove two facts we already know: that the music industry is greedy (already asking for a bigger slice of this pie!) and that the porn industry is a prime innovator in marketing and technology :-)"
Only two problems I see with this... (Score:0, Interesting)
First, I already hate it when someone leaves their phone on in a movie or quiet resturant... now I have to be subjected to their music tastes too? This is like carrying a little ghetto blaster with you wherever you go.
And second, I just bought a new phone that came with something loaded on it as the ring, and I can't figure it out because I'm not 16 and I don't listen to top 40 radio.
If you like your music that much, get a frickin iPod or Rio and keep it to yourself.
I dunno, but maybe... (Score:5, Interesting)
But it seems tho that since we're so behind here that that won't materialize like it has overseas - and not just Japan, but in a lot of other wireless countries. I dunno, our attitude and recording industry cartel just seems different here; hard to say what will happen..
And then... (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, you can expect the RIAA to try to have it outlawed...
Its sad (Score:3, Interesting)
With Processing power on Mobile Phones getting better, it would make sense to be able to play REAL Sound files. A 20-30 second sound mp3 file could easily fit on a phone, and it could be worth the price of around £2 per mini song, but not a couple of silly beeps
Landline phones are starting to get more spiced up, the singing lizard phone for example. But they are FREAKING PHONES after all, and they are supposed to go RING RING, not beep beep beep beep beep beep beep, leave that to Ellen Fiess!
What about manual input? (Score:1, Interesting)
What's to stop people from publishing this list? Would they be slapped with piracy? How long must a ring tone be before it is considered a work? If I play "Bum-bum-bum, ba-da-bum bum" would I get charged for "Pressure" or "Ice Ice Baby"?
Self Composed (Score:1, Interesting)
What then would be their rights if users began to share their own renditions of top 40 songs for free. I would say it would be analogous to my band making a cover of a top forty song, then allowing people to download my cover mp3 for free... is that illeagal too?
Re:I dunno, but maybe... (Score:4, Interesting)
And because our corporations find it much more lucrative to stifle new technology for 'just good enough' stuff. If you don't think this is true, you should read some of the articles available on how the FCC screws the public over by pandering to the every wish of the media and phone companies, which have no desire to create better networks for their subscribers. We're behind, and that's a fact! We get very little for our spectrum that the FCC just gives away..
Re:Don't Hold Your Breath (Score:1, Interesting)
Living in Japan I like to think that Americans are more sophisticated, but its easier for me to *not* see the people in America who would go all goofy over a new ring melody. Here I see people who I thought I respected get all excited about their new melody and wonder what the world is coming to... right now ringing melodies are number 5 on the Japan Google Zeitgeist [google.pl]
As for people being annoyed by the phones, It is considered the end-all of rudeness to talk on a phone in the train here (but not to your friend next to you ?) but I have been in busienss meetings where the main speaker beings the meeting to a grinding halt for 5 minutes to answer his phone. It seems to be accepted pratice.
Well .. in the UK (Score:5, Interesting)
Copyrighted how ? (Score:4, Interesting)
AFAIK this is a classic example of a (remotely) derived work, and lets face it a phone going dee-da-da-dee-da is not in really remotely related to or produced from the actual music that they phone melody makers are trying to reproduce.
The ring tones don't use any samples from the music and the music composition is totally different, both through different timing of the notes and through playing only one (or a couple) of notes at a time. Therefore the person who makes the phone ring tone is making a completely new piece of work and shouldn't need to give any cash for the permission to distribute it.
The only thing that you could even try and argue is under copyright is the songs name, which would/should get laughed out of any court.
So although it looks like a nice revenue stream for the music industry, why should they get any cash ?
Re:Humiliating (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:And then... (Score:2, Interesting)
For example, this site [ringtonesearch.com] offers downloadable ringtones as well as screen savers and a bunch of other stuff. And this site [freeservers.com] provides "Free ringtones for Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sanyo, Siemens and Sony mobile phones".
Nokia Ringtone Composer (Score:3, Interesting)
The IP and monetary issues being raised... (Score:2, Interesting)
Envisional [envisional.com], a UK-based Internet monitoring company, even goes so far as to claim that "Illegal downloads of mobile ringtones costs music industry $1million per day [envisional.com]". However, in all fairness, that article does mention that the estimates they talk about are rough, since "Reliable figures on the total ringtone market are very hard to come by...but there is no doubt as to the scale of the problem. This is another Napster in the making."
The music industry can't get a cent from me... (Score:2, Interesting)
I always put one obviously wrong note (or two) in them, just for kicks. Kinda like how Bugs Bunny would play them.
Someone's phone is ringing.....
Oh, that's DEFINITELY mine.
Re:Am I the only one... (Score:2, Interesting)
Most cell phones DO work badly, and the cellcos have long ago figured out that it's cheaper to market the hell out of essentially worthless products (like ringtones or Java/BREW videogames) than it is to build infrastructure.
Personally, I will never, ever pay for a ringtone. I will likewise never pay to play games on my phone or to use it to take pictures. What I want is better network coverage and a handset durable enough to put up with my abuse. Those are features I'd be willing to pay for, but I'm obviously not the targeted market...
Sprint is still too greedy for ringtones to work (Score:2, Interesting)
I received a message back from Sprint's customer service, a few days after I had initially inquired about ringtones. Apparently you need to subscribe to a service ($4/mo, I think), which allows you to download 8 ringtones per month. And until you subscribe, you can't review any of the "titles" available for download -- which makes it quite useless if you're looking for a specific ringtone (Our Lady Peace's "Starseed", for instance).
Basically, I ended up buying a more colorful phone with a slightly improved alarm clock, infinitely crappier menu and panda "screen saver" for my cash. I'd have no problem paying for ringtones, even at $0.50 a pop, but I have the same problems here as I do with online music -- I wanna try before I buy. And as for monthly charges -- hell no.