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Ringtone Price...Why complain?

O

outkaste25

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 31, 2007
38
1
I find it amazing that people are upset over this. Take this scenario: Prior to the advent of the iPhone, you go out and buy a CD or a song on iTunes. Then your wireless carrier offers you a ringtone of that same song (most likely at a price more than $1.98) and what happens? You buy it. And nobody b****es on a forum about it. I think it's a fair deal IMHO...

peace!
:apple::apple::apple:
 
Because many phones have allowed us to use ringtones for free. Having to rebuy a song I ALREADY own on CD just to then pay AGAIN to use it as a ringtone seem fair?
 
For me, my previous phone was the razr on Cingular or AT&T or whatever you want to call it. When I wanted to get a new ringtone, I had to pay 2.50 a pop. And I didn't get to choose what part of the song I wanted, much less preview it before I bought it. I think alot of people are like me, and aren't into the whole computer hacking deal, and just went along with this because it was easy and conveinent.

Now, I can pay 2.00 and get the entire song and make my own ringtone out of whatever part of the song that I wish. Seems like a pretty good deal to me and pretty much everyone that I associate with. Not everybody is down with hacking your iPhone.
 
I had a razr.... and I just bluetoothed ringtones for free from my iMac to the RAZR.

FWIW, I only ever made one... and it was from a CD I had previously bought at retail. I do NOT think the song is available from iTunes as a ringtone.

But I would have to agree with the comment above... if you already pay .99 cents for a song, why is it another .99 cents to use a shorter version of it? I would be a lot more comfortable if it were .25 cents- that seems fair based on .99 for a full song, ESPECIALLY since you are required to buy the full song as a condition of making the ringtone.
 
Actually with the Motorolla razr you could transfer ringtones by downloading motorola phone tools for free.
You could use any existing mp3 on your hard drive and even crop down the section of the song that you wanted.
So it kinda sucks that its not free but theres plenty of programs out there that would do the job with a one time fee :)

sief said:
For me, my previous phone was the razr on Cingular or AT&T or whatever you want to call it. When I wanted to get a new ringtone, I had to pay 2.50 a pop. And I didn't get to choose what part of the song I wanted, much less preview it before I bought it. I think alot of people are like me, and aren't into the whole computer hacking deal, and just went along with this because it was easy and conveinent.

Now, I can pay 2.00 and get the entire song and make my own ringtone out of whatever part of the song that I wish. Seems like a pretty good deal to me and pretty much everyone that I associate it. Not everybody is down with hacking your iPhone.
Click to expand...
 
Great Minds....

sief said:
For me, my previous phone was the razr on Cingular or AT&T or whatever you want to call it. When I wanted to get a new ringtone, I had to pay 2.50 a pop. And I didn't get to choose what part of the song I wanted, much less preview it before I bought it. I think alot of people are like me, and aren't into the whole computer hacking deal, and just went along with this because it was easy and conveinent.

Now, I can pay 2.00 and get the entire song and make my own ringtone out of whatever part of the song that I wish. Seems like a pretty good deal to me and pretty much everyone that I associate it. Not everybody is down with hacking your iPhone.
Click to expand...

sief gets it :p
 
Just install AppTapp, then install SendSong. You can use any song u already have on your ipod in your iphone. Oh yeah, it's FREE! And btw, I've been making my own ringtones in iTunes for yearrrs, and then just sending them over bluetooth to the phone. I've never understood how people pay for friggin ringtones. I'm not being cheap, but if you do enough research you can figure it out.
 
Why complain??? How about because on my Treo, I didn't need to buy it, I made my file, then I drag and dropped it right into the correct folder on the phone in Windows explorer. No iTunes, no $1.98, no SSH, simple two step process like any normal set up.

THATS WHY!
 
outkaste25 said:
sief gets it :p
Click to expand...

I don't think you do. Now let me explain why some are upset.

I buy a CD
I want to use a track that iTunes allows from that CD as a ringtone
Can I use it? NOPE
I then have to buy the music AGAIN
I then have to pay AGAIN to use it as a ringtone.

So in the end I have paid three times for that song. One for the CD, one to download it, and once to use it as a ringtone.

YEAH that seems about right.
 
its another example of apple keeping the iphone closed .. its like being with verizon expect i'm on att. thankfully there's hacks... i still havent updated my itunes to 7.4.1 because right now i can put my own on my iphone.
 
I understand the principle, but exactly how many ringtones are people creating. If I ever create 10 in my life I will be suprised. And if I do then they will be on songs I already bought via iTunes so the extra cost is $10. So I don't really see the big deal.

So far I have created 1. Since I already owned the song it cost me $1. Have not yet found another song I want to create a ringtone from.
 
I would just like the ability to add ringtones that are not songs but regular tones that i can bump the volume and actually hear my ringer. I've been able to do that lately, thankfully, but I don't understand why a user can't just add something they've created in garageband easily into the phone. I hope the update doesn't cripple itoner and if it does I have hope that moki and his people will answer.
 
d21mike said:
I understand the principle, but exactly how many ringtones are people creating. If I ever create 10 in my life I will be suprised. And if I do then they will be on songs I already bought via iTunes so the extra cost is $10. So I don't really see the big deal.

So far I have created 1. Since I already owned the song it cost me $1. Have not yet found another song I want to create a ringtone from.
Click to expand...

And you only had to pay $1. Now is it right that a person who purchases CD's has to pay $2 for the same right to use that song as a ringtone?

Forcing a person to buy their music from iTunes to use as a ringtone is what is a problem with me.

I would rather have the option to buy the physical medium, rip to FLAC to keep as a digital archive and then encode to mp3 to use for everyday. On top of that I don't have to deal with DRM.
 
Don't quote me on this, but I read somewhere that Apple did not want to charge for the ringtone feature, but the RIAA kind of bullied them into it. Furthermore, Apple sees little or no profit from the ringtone sales, as do the artists. I heard its direct profit for the RIAA.

Can someone verify this for me? I'm tired :p But I did hear this, and felt that I should perhaps start some discussion on this perspective of the situation.
 
I just downloaded my first legal ringtones. I didn't realize you had to buy the song, then buy the ringtone! I have so many songs that I burned from CDs, so they're mine! Why do I have to buy it again?

P.S. there's not much to choose from, seeing as I'm a middle-aged guy who isn't interested in Bootsy, just Bootsy Collins!
 
$1.99 is about the going rate for a ringtone. I don't think anyone is upset about that. If you don't have time, desire, technical ability, to make your own tones it's a fair price.

What annoys people is that Apple has locked out the ability for those who do have the time, desire, ability to make tones with their own music, a lot of which is not even on iTMS.

A lot of less expensive phones (a lot) give you the ability to make tones, get free promotional tones, or to just buy them. It's the consumer's choice. The iPhone doesn't afford that choice. THAT is what has people annoyed.
 
D1G1T4L said:
Because many phones have allowed us to use ringtones for free. Having to rebuy a song I ALREADY own on CD just to then pay AGAIN to use it as a ringtone seem fair?
Click to expand...

I'd bet my iPhone that of the people complaining 99% don't own the music they want free ring tones of anyway and hide behind the original ownership concept to explain away fair use.

Is it fair? Eh maybe, maybe not. Maybe if people bought all their music they'd have a moral leg to stand on in the debate though.

<enter 5 responses of people saying "but *I* bought all my music and I still think it's unfair. Yeah yeah, sure you did.>
 
Sobe said:
I'd bet my iPhone that of the people complaining 99% don't own the music they want free ring tones of anyway and hide behind the original ownership concept to explain away fair use.

Is it fair? Eh maybe, maybe not. Maybe if people bought all their music they'd have a moral leg to stand on in the debate though.

<enter 5 responses of people saying "but *I* bought all my music and I still think it's unfair. Yeah yeah, sure you did.>
Click to expand...

I sadly agree with you. And of course the people who do things right get punished. DRM hurts customers who purchase music.....argh....just another thing to rant on.

iTunes plus is a step in the right direction for me to buy digital. Give me DRM free and lossless and I'll be happy to download :D
 
I did not buy T-Mobile either, at least with iTunes you can select the part of the song you want, but really the whole thing is stupid.


Why am I upset.
I don't think I should have to pay an extra $0.99 to put a 30 second clip of a song on my phone when I have the whole damn song in there to begin with.


The ringtone market is huge because people are stupid and like to annoy others.
 
For me, honestly, I don't even mind paying for the song+ringtone. The problem is there are a lot of songs/pieces/etc that I want to use as my ringtone(or ringtone for specific friends) and I can't because they simply are not available on itunes at all.

Also apple's purchase policy has its flaws. Lets say you want to use a portion of a song you already own as a ringtone. Then you want to use another portion of the exact same song. You have to pay twice for both ringtones. You can't just re-edit once you make a purchase.
 
God damn you whiners need to quiet down. News flash. Apple doesn't make the law! And a ringtone is a totally separate legal entity from the song it is based. It's stupid, I know, but you can blame the RIAA for that. You need specific rights to use a song as a ringtone, which don't come with a CD or an iTunes purchase, so you have to buy the rights. It's like two bucks guys, lighten up.
 
Pants Dragon said:
God damn you whiners need to quiet down. News flash. Apple doesn't make the law! And a ringtone is a totally separate legal entity from the song it is based. It's stupid, I know, but you can blame the RIAA for that. You need specific rights to use a song as a ringtone, which don't come with a CD or an iTunes purchase, so you have to buy the rights. It's like two bucks guys, lighten up.
Click to expand...

What is the "law" that I have to buy a song twice to be able to pay $.99 to use it as a ringtone? What law is that again?
 
synth3tik said:
I did not buy T-Mobile either, at least with iTunes you can select the part of the song you want, but really the whole thing is stupid.


Why am I upset.
I don't think I should have to pay an extra $0.99 to put a 30 second clip of a song on my phone when I have the whole damn song in there to begin with.


The ringtone market is huge because people are stupid and like to annoy others.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I don't even consider Apple in the picture, although they are obviously making money on it.

I simply like to treat others the way I would like to be treated, and if it were my music, I'd want people to pay for a ringtone.

If it is music you own the rights to, then it becomes more an issue of convenience -- Apple has chosen to lock their system to some extent and leverage their ipod/iPhone/iTMS platform.

This is hardly new for them.
 
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