Ringtones and The Cost of Music

This evening, I was trying to look for a new ringtone for my new Nokia 6102. For giggles, I fired up the web browser on the phone and looked at Cingular’s Ringtone Store. The selection was alright, but what hit me was the cost: $2.49 US. What? You mean to tell of that a low quality snippet of a song has more value than the whole song when purchased thru iTunes Music Store or a whole album from sites in Russia? That’s gotta be almost pure profit for the mobile carriers and the RIAA. Given what is paid for bandwidth on a mobile handset to download that ringtone in the first place, ringtones should cost on more than a quarter for a popular song, less or even free for older music. Heck, you could even pay people to download certain ringtones since they are basically a form of advertising. You don’t think that distinctive ring that is default on most Nokia handsets hasn’t created a strong association with Nokia whenever it is heard? And I hear that ring on TV shows all the time.