Monday, August 20, 2007

Ringles

The music industry is definitely in a bad spot. The same technology that made untold fortunes from the late eighties through the end of last century came back and bit us in our collective asses. The invention of music in digital form made it too easy for people to file share, burn cd's, stock mp3 players, and one-click download entire catalogs for free.
I firmly believe that once that same digital technology progresses even further and the G4 or maybe even G5 networks are up and blazing that our industry problems will be solved. No more owning music. Forget a CD, forget a hard drive, forget an Ipod (in its current storage form). Music will be streamed to us- whatever we wanna hear, whenever we wanna hear it. Beautiful, clean, convenient, and worth PAYING for. Without a need to own anything but the device that plays it.
BUT, until then, there is some desperate stuff going on out there. My esteemed colleagues have informed me of a new initiative to make people PAY for music- The Ringle. A Ringle consists of a little fun-pack that includes a single, a remix of that single, an album cut or catalog selection, a ringtone, and a wallpaper. For like $5.99.
I hate that shit. What? You wanna charge half the price of an album for a single in multiple forms and a picture of the artists face on your phone that plays the ringtone of the moment through a flat speaker the size of a dime? And you wanna know what's killing the music industry?
Bullshit temporary solutions like this don't help. They hurt the art of the album, and make the consumer want to stay away even more. Let's spend our time and money trying to make a long-term solution. Not on marketing songs for more money a piece than people are already NOT paying.
Where are people supposed to buy Ringles anyway? The record store? Good luck finding one. And what a name- Ringle. Come on...

5 comments:

the blog cabin said...

a fucking "ringle" ???
come on..that is the weakest shit ever.

Anonymous said...

Paul,

It's cool to know that there are still folks like you at the top who are in touch with reality. There are a ton of "patch work" fixes out there that will fade quickly. The truth is, people like like music, music is work, and work is worth paying for.

::stepping of soap box::

Anyways, keep up the good writing! It's always fun to read on this topic from folks who are actualy in it!

Have a great day,
Alex

Anonymous said...

Paul,

im 24 and i love music and most of it is in the underground side of the music scene but i could not agree with you more!

wow! that is really lame, and like you said "ringle" what the fuck, i wouldn't buy that just cause it sounds fucking gay as hell... i use itunes, and pay for all my music i really wish more people would do the same. i have a ton of respect for anyone out there making music and for the record companies bringing us that music and helping bands with the right tools so that they are able to make the best albums they can. why not support that? i just don't understand it, kids just don't care these days i guess.

its really funny to me when i talk to kids or hear them bitching about big bands and record companies. they make good music, no wonder they are having some kind of success. people just want to hate and keep shit for themselfs, its pretty sad when you think about it really

having said that there is a lot of over produce shit out there, but if you really like music and search out the good stuff it doesn't matter anyway. people should be supporting good music and good record companies, by paying for those products.

randal

Louie DeGeorge said...

i agree. they need to find a solution that wont last 2 weeks but will last 10 or 20 years.

Daniel McGuire said...

Hey,
i spotted your blog and it seems we have a lot in common.

I agree with you on the stupidity of these industry solutions to their current crisis.

However, although we all moan about people downloading music, couldn't it be argued that it's the consumer hitting back at a seriously overpriced market?

I'm a huge fan of music (and a musician myself) and i pride myself on my huge fucking CD collection. But if i was just an average joe with the average interest in music there's no way i'd spend £15.00 or whatever on a new record if i could download it for rock all. It's the same with concert tickets - they are extremely overpriced. You go to a music festival, for a huge ticket price, only to find out that it costs you about £3 a bottle of water etc who can say that isn't total robbery?

Isn't this just consumer revenge in a strange way?