“Ringtones are generally liked and purchased by people under 30. These same people generally have a higher technology IQ”

They do?

People of that age mostly seem rather retarded when it comes to technology. Sure, they all use their mobile phones constantly, but few of them seem to have any idea of how technology works. What kind of a technologically-savvy person would choose to be a slave to their mobile phone, anyway? Technology is supposed to be there to help us.

Wheras people over 30 often grew up in the era when you actually had to know how a computer works to operate it, and even know a bit of programming. I’d say 30 to 50 would be the primary age-bracket for high-tech literacy.

If you could other forms of technology than just computers, it gets even worse. People in even older age brackets know how to do their own mechanical work – whether it be on a car or other mechanical/electrical item. How many 20-somethings ever do mechanical work on their car?

Heck, I have my doubts that some of these “tech savvy” youngsters could even change a lightglobe. They don’t seem to know much beyond sending an SMS message, or using Windows and perhaps Limewire or Bittorrent.

(With apologies to the Fireball.)

SCENE: A hospital room.
THE CD SINGLE, quinquagenarian and pale, sits on a bed, attached to a bewildering array of chattering and beeping monitors: pulse, temperature, accounts receivable. The old boy may be bar…

-A

I think it becomes really easy for all of us in tech to assume the rest of the population has caught on to the things we’ve caught on, and thinking otherwise is just plain ignorant. Go outside of our little world and nobody knows what Twitter is, nobody knows what TechCrunch is, even, and lots of people don’t know that others download music. That’s what the record industry knows that you apparently do not.

I don’t think it’s a great idea, really, but I bet it was super super cheap enough for them to see margins. And, really, they’re probably not banking on the “ringle” to save the industry – it’s more like making a little extra money out of what they’ve already got. I think the name is the only thing that is completely stupid in all of this.

I posted something on this a week or two ago, but I have moved since…

THE DONGLE not a freaking ringle – IS WHAT THE MUSIC INDUSTRY NEEDS!

How does the dongle (or any other secure token) disrupt the digital music world? Here’s how: artists or labels put everything (music, pictures, video, messaging, ticket deals, etc.) behind a secure wall on the web, and consumers have to buy a dongle to go behind the wall. The dongle costs $5 to $25.00 per artist and it expires in one year. Once behind the wall, dinner is served. Consumers can download, interact, stream and play unfettered and unlimited – until the dongle is pulled from the USB port of the client computer. It’s beautiful; dongles could be gifted, hung from a keychain, branded, collected, shipped, shared, swapped, etc.

I have an entire post on this one…
http://www.unsp...c-industry.html

Thanks for staying as innovative as you are and let hungry companies eat your steak.

How will the non-techie-target-group transfer the music from their CD to their phone without the help of a geek?

http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com

Extremely low incremental cost would be attainable by allowing consumers to purchase the song they want, a older song from the same artist and a ringtone online and doing with them as they please.

@43
There is nothing wrong with their “moving units” paradigm. They just need to come up with new and realistic ways of implementing it. This is partly kind of new but not realistic. Ad revenue is not the answer for everything.