Will Mobile Phones Save The Music Industry?

Wireless

from the how-very-short-sighted dept

Here’s a meme that’s been growing rapidly over the last six months or so: mobile phones will help save the music industry via things like ringtones. Certainly, there’s plenty of evidence that lots of people (generally the younger market who is considered the “Napster Generation”) have been willing to pay for ringtones. However, what amazes me about this is that people seem to ignore history. Mobile phone platforms are increasingly being pushed to open up, and creating a file sharing service for ringtones is easy enough. The one thing that ringtones have going for them is that (unlike with the regular music industry) there’s already authorized downloads offered. Still, assuming that ringtone file sharing for free won’t occur seems to be a bit short sighted. Besides, it’s still difficult to figure out how long companies can get away with charging people to make their phones ring differently.