It appears that the Copyright Royalties Board has gotten into the business of price fixing. Up until now, publishers and artists would negotiate how much pay artists would receive for ringtone downloads. Now that's no longer the case. The Copyright Royalties Board recently decided to set a standard royalty rate for ringtone downloads, which means the government is making quite an impact on how much we have to pay for our beloved ringtones.
So what exactly did the Board decide? Now all ringtone artists will be paid 24 cents per ringtone download, and that means you're going to be paying about $2 or $3 for each one. Those hopes of 99 cent download sites? They pretty much went down the tubes.
Of course, the high ringtone prices might drive up illegal ringtone downloads, causing the artists and publishers to lose out in the end. Is there an alternative? Actually, there is.
Customers may be better off signing up with subscription ringtone services. Star Reviews reports that users of Dada Mobile can get 15 ringtones per month for less than $10. If they can hold out on that pricing, that brings you in at less than $1 per ringtone.
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