iPhone Ringtones in iTunes
Apple recently announced that in their latest version of iTunes will be an included ringtone editor for the iPhone.
This addition has sparked much controversy, particularly because Apple is charging $0.
99 per ringtone made.
But is it fair to charge users an additional fee for use of a segment of a song that they already own? Apple argue that with the average ringtone costing upwards of $2.
50, they save at least $0.
50 by downloading the song and creating a ringtone out of it.
I personally believe that Apple is making the wrong decision.
I was shocked to hear Steve Jobs announce that they'd be charging for use of the ringtone editor -- what was the whole point of so heavily promoting DRM-free songs if you're not able to use a segment of the song on your brand new iPhone? The fact that you have to pay additional money on top of the $600+ you spent on your iPhone to get rid of the increasingly annoying stock standard ringtones boggles the mind.
Sure, you may get fancy "professional" fade in and fade outs added to your ringtone, but is it really worth the extra $0.
99? While I'm not trying to promote iPhone hacking, I'm sure a rebellious group of iHackers will already be hard at work to develop a free method of putting your own ringtones on the iPhone.
I certainly wouldn't recommend the use of third party applications (for the one reason that I wouldn't want to reformat my iPhone), but the widespread use of them may just push Apple to reconsider their money making tactics.
This addition has sparked much controversy, particularly because Apple is charging $0.
99 per ringtone made.
But is it fair to charge users an additional fee for use of a segment of a song that they already own? Apple argue that with the average ringtone costing upwards of $2.
50, they save at least $0.
50 by downloading the song and creating a ringtone out of it.
I personally believe that Apple is making the wrong decision.
I was shocked to hear Steve Jobs announce that they'd be charging for use of the ringtone editor -- what was the whole point of so heavily promoting DRM-free songs if you're not able to use a segment of the song on your brand new iPhone? The fact that you have to pay additional money on top of the $600+ you spent on your iPhone to get rid of the increasingly annoying stock standard ringtones boggles the mind.
Sure, you may get fancy "professional" fade in and fade outs added to your ringtone, but is it really worth the extra $0.
99? While I'm not trying to promote iPhone hacking, I'm sure a rebellious group of iHackers will already be hard at work to develop a free method of putting your own ringtones on the iPhone.
I certainly wouldn't recommend the use of third party applications (for the one reason that I wouldn't want to reformat my iPhone), but the widespread use of them may just push Apple to reconsider their money making tactics.
