It seems like every couple months one of the major labels announces yet another
harebrained scheme to entice consumers to purchase CDs, regardless of what people actually prefer, and right on schedule,
Sony BMG and
Universal have announced their latest three-martini-and-a-cocktail-napkin plan: the "ringle," a $6 CD single featuring a remix and ringtone. There's really not much more to say -- trying to revive the CD single by adding in something that consumers are used to getting over-the-air seems like it speaks for itself -- but it's certainly interesting to see the labels desperately try and nab as much of the ringtone market as they can, even as their partners try and move
forward. We'll see you at the funeral, boys.
[Image courtesy of
Boy Genuis Report]
posted Sep 10th 2007 10:45PM
That's... That's just sad.
$6 for a single?! That's crazy, when most albums debut at between $15 and $20. The ringtone does NOT make up the difference.
Why should you have to pay for a ringtone anyway. My old Nokia uses MP3's. I am not going to pay money for a ringtone. What a waste of money. The whole music industry is a rip off. I buy pirated goods, you know where they warn you the money is going towards drugs. Well from what I can see that cuts out the middleman as most famous musicians end up taking and dying from drugs anyway. You only have to watch Britney Spears latest showing at an award show to see where the money goes if you by the ring tone to Hit me baby one more time.
I wonder if they paid Pringles for stealing their intellectual property and trademarks! ;)
[Image courtesy of Boy Genuis Report]
Reading comprehension could fix the problem...
Sarcasm detection: Fail.
Oh, I am sorry. Never mind all of the idiots who fail the Reading Comprehension detector around here on a regular basis.
That is some weird crap
Uhhh, what a horrible name. It sounds like some sort of infectious skin disease.
Universal, From iTunes...to pringles (excuse me ringles)
"We'll see you at the funeral, boys."
Somehow that cracks me up. lol
what
the
f*ck
?
I just threw up a whole bunch of ringles reading this.
killer photoshop job on that one, hats off!
I think Singles are very important but should be more like $3. Its unfair to class music as a success based on Radio Plays (controlled by large Radio Corporations) but should only be based on downloads and purchases and thus singles should be reintroduced to the US Market. I always import the singles of my favourite artists.
+1
I'd buy a couple... if they stuck them on the mini sized cds, like singles were supposed to be delivered. :)
At first I thought the Pringles were actually part of the package and I was kinda excited....
I agree.
Seriously Universal. First hating on Apple by not renewing the contract for music. Then selling no DRM content on Amazon Unboxed, other stores and not on iTunes. You even jack up the prices forcing Apple to ditch NBC?
Finally, you come up with this idea?
I'm sorry but SCREW YOU!
Heck no I'm buying one of those.
AKBlade13
yea...there's probably about $6 worth of pringles there. and I actually like pringles.
stack 'em high like Pringles and I might even buy a box for $6.
So how is this different then Jay Z disc I bought for $4 ot $6 3 years ago that had 2 singles, 2 music videos, and soft sort of multimedia web application on it? I forgot what they called it, but it wasn't something stupid ass like "ringle".
Sony BMG and Universal should drop their "real" CDs to $6 to $10.
Looks like Rringles to me... (there's two Rs)
C'mon, guys, you've got to expect the labels to lurch around some--those tar pits are sticky.
That's true -- though it would be much more satisfying if a giant meteor smashed into the earth, eradicating all music labels in a huge ball of fire.
Engadget need to get in contact with Sony BMG. They obviously didn't read the "Engadget Interview: Phil Schiller, Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing" or the "Know Your Rights: Is it illegal to make my own ringtones" article!
Tisk Tisk Tisk!
:D
If the CD dies, where am I supposed to get my high-quality lossless files and box-art?
Yes, I probably can't tell the difference between a well-encoded lossy file and a lossless one, but I can't encode that lossy file to another lossy format, that's a big no-no. I need lossless so I can encode to whatever I want to. And I have yet to see a large online music store (like itunes) that uses good-quality lossy files, anyway.
Actually, isn't there some company from Britain that sells master-level (quality) lossless files?
I love CDs. I don't want them to go away. I think it's fine to pay $10-$15 for lossless files, the physical CD, the album art and liner notes. Whenever I buy a new album, I listen to the music while reading through the liner notes - White Stripes albums have neat little notes written by Jack in them. I find it incredibly satisfying to actually have a physical object I purchased, not some string of bits that people I've never met or heard of will tell me I can only use in ways they say I can.
Looks like somebody's got a case of the ringles!
DUDE!! that was so lame it was awesome. . case of the ringles.. ha ha ha
I know this is just a blog, but it should be "every" and "announces" in the first line. It may not be formal literature, but considering how many people read it, you may want to fix that.
So why would I pay $6 for the ONE ringtone I want, when I could pay 99c for the same thing on iTunes or whatever.
wow I'm surprised... 25+ comments and no "once you pop you just can't stop" even though its obvious that won't be the case for this one :)
Another crappy cash scheme for the loss. When will they ever learn?
Is the 'very' in the first sentence supposed to be 'every'?
The CD single is only dead because the majors killed it. It's something consumers want and will be back eventually if it isn't already.
And for those of you who think physical formats are dead, you couldn't be more wrong. Physical formats will never die. CD, vinyl, high-def DVD, all here to stay. Many people will always prefer having a tangible copy of their favorite music/movie and no mp3 with a jpg for a cover will ever replace it.
Who buys mp3's anyway? Retards. You're paying full price for about 1/10 of the audio quality, best case.
Want to get married?
Sure, if you're ok with women on the side. They don't mean anything to me, strictly physical.
i hear wedding ringles
sorry couldn't resist
I love the headline! It made me laugh. The labels are so busy trying to force anyone to give them mouth to mouth. "We'll see you at the funeral, boys."
no conspiracy nut, but at first glance the Pringles guy combined with the Universal logo looks like Hitler for the 1st millisecond you look at it.
I see a lawsuit, Ringles Dog Treats: http://arcatapet.com/item.cfm?cat=12427
On a side note, ringtones are now officially available through the iTunes Store.
I came here to comment but it seems like greyscale beat me to it. I'd rather have a three way with Rosie O'Donnell and Hilary Clinton than use iTunes, let alone buying something from the iTunes store...bleh...
Ther
More info here:
http://www.MusicRingles.com
I think this idea will stick, it's a cool name.. "ringtones and singles" in one.. "Ringles" lol
OK
once you pop you just cant stop?
Ahhh you beat me to it! lol
But seriously that photoshop job is very good :)
thats there idea of value i remember when singles here where £3 so about $6 and you got 4 songs, think singles now are £5 and you get maybe 2 songs, singles just arent worth buying
huh! paying real money for music on a CD, that's sooo 1987.
After seeing the picture, I told my mum that the thing included a tin of Pringles... only then did I actually read the link and was utterly disappointed.
"Ringles" sounds like something you'd pick up camping in a foreign country or something.
Like the worst parts of both Rickets and Shingles.
"Who buys mp3's anyway? Retards. You're paying full price for about 1/10 of the audio quality, best case"
Actually some retards are listening to CDs in car & portable players with anti-skip features not realizing that these systems re-sample the CD audio at low data rates. Then there's the horrendous error correction and filtering on your home machine...
Rip a CD to MP3 at 320KBs with Check-Sum on, probably the closest you'll get to the original unless you have a $5K player at the crib.
this sounds like such a bad idea I almost can't believe it.
662af8b
blah
CD's still account for 95% of all music sales - and that includes singles. You guys are a little premature in implying that "people prefer" downloads. They don't.
The problem is they're just not buying singles at all anymore, either download or CD. "Single" is distinct from "individual songs" - a single is a specifically chosen song used as a promotional tool for an album. So while people may be downloading a lot of individual songs, they're neither downloading nor buying on CD very many singles anymore. And to the record labels, that's hurting overall sales (because there's more profit in albums than in individual songs).
But as to the format, let's say you own a business, and 95% of all of your business is done on one format and 5% on the other. What are you going to concentrate on? Even if the 5% format is growing, there's still no guarantee it'll ever overtake the 95% format... and if it does, it's going to be years down the line.
Tech bloggers are always putting the cart before the horse on music. Buying habits are not changing nearly as fast as blogosphere conventional wisdom would have it. Most people are still buying albums and they're buying them on CD. It's just overall sales across the industry that are down, and that includes singles.
CD singles still exist--- They're called "CDs" and pretty much every major artist in the 21st century is focused on releasing CDs of their single, surrounded by other musical content as filler.
The theory goes like this-- The CD single was too sparse. The single track was getting damaged in shipping, so they started adding a bunch of extra musical notes, drum beats, and vocal abortions to both sides of the single track to protect it in it's journey to the CD players of today's youth. Now, they can listen to their single (the only song on the whole CD that they care about, or that's worth listening to) and feel secure in the knowledge that it was protected and sounds just as crisp, homogenous, and unoriginal as it did when they heard it on the radio, MTV, or at the club.
SO you see, the single is still out there: They have just resorted to packing it in with the musical equivalent of packing peanuts to make sure it reaches the audience for $12-$14 a pop.
Thank you, music industry, for looking out for me!