In an apparent attempt to salvage its reputation among music fans who use cellphones, Verizon has announced that it will discontinue the $15 per month it charges users for the right to even think about downloading music directly onto your phone. This means that music on Verizon phones will now "only" cost $2 per song (without the additional $15 monthly VCast fee).
First of all, I've been complaining about Verizon's practice of disabling the MP3 ringtone feature on its Razr's lately – a practice that forced my brother to toss his Verizon Razr into the sea in an unconscious protest against their overly-restrictive ringtone policy. Readers of this blog sent in suggestions on how to re-enable Verizon Razr's with ringtones, but I still wish the company would just sell the phone with the features it's supposed to have.
Second, what about the "Chocolate" LG cellphone that Verizon also just announced, that will have an iPod-style scrollwheel? According to reports, it'll be able to sideload MP3s from a computer, which is a big improvement.
According to the Verizon spokesman I just asked, users cannot use those MP3s as ringtones, "due to licensing issues," so owners of that "Chocolate" LG phone will still have to pay separately for ringtones and won't be able to make their own.
To my ear, "licensing issues" translates as "ringtone revenue goals." It's hard to say how much the policy stems from Verizon or the record labels – all that's clear is that Verizon's policy of blocking MP3 ringtones sucks for its users. I think that if you own a song legally, you should be able to have that song play when you get a phone call without paying again for that privilege.
