Ringtones And Downloads Aren't The Same? Really?
A point we’ve made time and time again in discussing mobile music, and its pricing in particular is that the price of full-track downloads and ringtones shouldn’t be related because they’re different products with very different purposes. MocoNews today points to a survey that backs up the point, saying that the different usage of ringtones allows for them to be priced higher than full tracks. The firm also says that people are willing to pay a premium for mobile music downloads, and that the optimal price point for an over-the-air full track download is $1.75. This is far from clear, and it’s important to point out that there’s a big difference between people saying they’d be interested in buying something at a certain price to a researcher and people actually spending their money on it. As much as mobile operators like to think differently, there aren’t separate markets for music downloads depending on the device used and its network connection. The going rate for downloads is 99 cents — people won’t make the distinction between songs for their iPod and songs for their phones, and pay higher prices accordingly.
