Three UK: £0.99 for a music track, £3.49 for a realtune???

Three UK realtune
Originally uploaded by ew4n.

So I’m sat in the back of the car with my two brothers in the front discussing the merits of buying Volvos. There’s a definite brand image issue with them both. One is in his mid twenties, the other is age 20 — both, read this and weep, both are Volvo drivers.

Anyway, since I’m sat in the back, I decided to engage with my N73 and have a play. I haven’t yet bought a track from the 3MusicStore. I’ve been meaning to do this. So I flicked up the Three UK browser, navigated to the music store page and found a promo for the band, Girls Aloud.

Fair enough, I reckoned. I’ll use them as the demo. I clicked mistakenly on the ‘realtune’ link instead of the ‘audio track’ link. Fair enough, again, I reckoned. I’ll download a realtune and check it out. I get to the ‘buy’ page and I’m shocked to see that a realtune will cost me:

£3.49

Er?

Sorry? What am I missing? I can BUY the WHOLE TRACK and download it to my handset AND my computer for £0.99. Yet you wanna stiff me for £3.49 for a realtune?

This is outrageous. Ridiculous. Stupid. Pathetic. And you know what, it tells you everything you need to know about how shit the mobile industry still is. They just never seem to get it.

Just because, Mr Ringtone Seller, in past years, you’ve managed to stiff the public for 3 quid or so for a ‘realtone’ or ‘realtune’, doesn’t mean you can continue to do so — particularly when Three UK’s 3MusicStore strategy has caught up and exceeded you and is now selling tracks for less than one quid.

I’ve no doubt that the Three UK ringtone people are different from the Three UK 3MusicStore people. Hence the price differential.

I really don’t know what planet you have to be on to charge this.

Don’t give me any crap about the music licensing people demanding you charge more for a ‘realtune’. Screw that. With bells on.

Absolutely ridiculous.