Ringle minded

It was a good week for bad ideas, especially in the music industry. First there was the Britney Spears trainwreck that opened MTV's annual Video Music Awards, and then there was 50 Cent's declaration he would retire from recording if his new LP, Curtis, fails to trump the sales of hip-hop rival Kanye West's new Graduation. So far, Graduation is on pace to sell about 575,000 to 700,000 copies in its first week in release, while Curtis looks to move about 550,000. But it all looked like rocket science compared to the ringle. The record industry's latest last-ditch attempt at resurrection and relevance, ringles effectively update the venerable single format for a new digital era, slapping together a CD featuring two or three songs (e.g., an artist's latest hit, an oldie or album cut, and a remix) with a ringtone download for a suggested list price of $5.98 or $6.98. Big-box retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy already have signed on to carry ringles in their stores, and will presumably stock them right next to the 8-track tapes, Betamax videos and Segways.  

I hate pretty much everything I know about ringles, beginning with the name--it's corny, my spellcheck program keeps changing it to "ringlet," and it sounds more like a snack chip or a skin disease than a premium digital format. I hate the price point--six or seven bucks is reasonable for a full-length release at the used record store, but seems like highway robbery for a CD single and a ringtone. But most of all I hate the needlessly complex and drawn-out consumer experience. So users are supposed to drive to Wal-Mart, purchase the ringle, return home, upload the CD to their hard drive, redeem the ringtone code included in the slip-sleeve cover and download the ringer from the web to their handset? Isn't it easier and cheaper to simply download the ringtone directly from the mobile operator to the phone?

Besides, Apple's already beaten ringles to the punch. Virtually lost among the hubbub of last week's iPhone price break and CEO Steve Jobs' resulting mea culpa was the announcement Apple will introduce a custom ringtone service enabling iPhone owners to select up to 30-second snippets from over a million participating iTunes songs for 99 cents. Of course, that's on top of the usual 99 cent full-track iTunes download, meaning consumers must pay twice for the same content … but that's another rant for another column. Even so, it's still a hell of a lot more cost-effective and convenient than the ringle. If this is the best the record industry can do to save itself, I can't imagine the ideas left on the cutting-room floor. Even Britney's shaking her head over this one … and crossing her fingers the wig doesn't fall off. - Jason