"Industry Betting on ’Ringle’ Format"

By Ed Christman NEW YORK (Billboard) - As the recording industry wakes up from its summer slumber and starts thinking about what will motivate the consumer for the holiday selling season, the major labels are getting ready to launch the "ringle," which combines the mostly defunct single format with ringtones. Each ringle is expected to contain three songs -- one hit and maybe one remix and an older track -- and one ringtone, on a CD with a slip-sleeve cover. The idea is that if consumers in the digital age can download any tracks they want individually, why not let them buy singles in the store as well? It also enables stores to get involved in the ringtone phenomenon. Sony BMG Music Entertainment, which came up with the ringle idea, and Universal Music Group are going to be the first out of the box with ringles. The former will unleash 50 titles during October and November, while UMG will have anywhere from 10 to 20 titles ready. The Recording Industry Association of America has approved the "ringle" name, and there is an industrywide logo to help brand it. But except for Sony, each major still needs to cut a deal with a digital aggregator to allow consumers to redeem the ringtone. Meanwhile, label profit margins for the format are considered slim. The majors are gambling that the ringle can instill in consumers the mind-set to connect to the Internet via the CD. Sources suggest the ringle will carry either a $5.98 or $6.98 list price, while the wholesale cost to retailers will be less than $4. If it's $5.98, ringles will have a 31 percent gross margin, shy of the 35 percent profit margin that CD albums carry nowadays; if it's $6.98, that would give retail a 42.7 percent gross margin, similar to the profit margin cassette and vinyl albums enjoyed back in the day. On the plus side, big retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Amazon have agreed to support the configuration, although all of them may not be ready to do so at launch date, sources say.

So basically...

The idea is that if consumers in the digital age can download any tracks they want individually, why not let them buy singles in the store as well?

they admit they should never have killed the CD single... without really admitting it, and acting like it's some new concept. Doiii!!!

At the current price point, it too, will be a failed format. The prices need to be more along the lines of $1.99 - $2.99 in order to spark some interest in the format. Can you imagine trying to sell a 45 RPM single for $5.99 - $6.99?

bdpop wrote: Can you imagine trying to sell a 45 RPM single for $5.99 - $6.99?

Well, if you consider inflation, that's probably roughly what a 45 would go for.

But too late -- people are used to paying 99 cents for a single, and there's no going back.

While I'm glad that they're trying this, I really wonder if the public has just gotten used to singles not being available.

Case in point: in Canada, the cassette-single never really caught on after 45s disappeared in the early '90s, and CD singles were sporadic and expensive for quite a while. Finally, around 1997 or so, the record companies started releasing a lot of CD singles again, many of them for around $2.99-3.99. Record stores even had charts on the wall again of the Top 30.

They were around for quite a while, but about 3 years ago production was sharply curtailed in favor of the download. Now, I think people have gotten used singles generally not being available again.

While I've always preferred having my own copy, I wonder if the geneeral public can be brought back into a physical singles-market again?

Paul Haney wrote: The genie is already out of the bottle on 99 cent downloads. I highly doubt that physical singles will ever be successful again in any format.

I guess it will depend on if downloads stay as affordable as they are. What if the record industry did away with single-track downloads? In other words, you could buy a single, but it would cost you $4.99 and you'd get 4 to 5 songs. Anything is possible, especially since the record companies seem to be hungry for more money.