Mobile Music - Fashion or Food?

Mark Donovan at M:Metrics blogs that "some of the strategies that industry players seem to be adopting with vigor" will end up stifling the market for mobile music.

As mentioned previously, Apple and iTunes have set customer expectations that a full music track should cost 99 cents. But as Donovan notes, "While it's true that a mastertone ringer will set you back two or three bucks, it's a mistake to think that ringtone pricing will raise the bar for full track [mobile] download pricing."

Donovan goes on to write that while "ringtones are fashion, music tracks are food." The former alows users to express their personality and thus justifies a higher price, while the latter is sustenance and gets added to the overall collection...