Exquisite Tweets from @barijoe

Ringbacktones have made snippets of music into status messages on your phone. Don't blame the technology.

#1 11:56pm Oct 14th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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RBT as a commercial business can exist as a viable music revenue channel alongside other more traditional methods.

#2 11:57pm Oct 14th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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if someone says RBT is a degradation of music; well does music have to be enjoyed by only traditional methods, and traditional durations?

#3 11:58pm Oct 14th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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and if someone is tying the alleged "degradation of music" to RBT, well that's just being snobbish.

#4 11:59pm Oct 14th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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RBT just enabled us to know how many music fans there are, and what kind of music they like. Market realities.

#5 12:00am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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and RBT has its own segment that enjoys it. So do CDs, digital downloads, and so on. It's still a recorded music product.

#6 12:01am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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it's never been a secret that music tastes vary, and that the majority of people will look for easily accessible music. RBT is no different.

#7 12:13am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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for instance: generally, more people would like Westlife rather than Herbert von Karajan. Unfortunate (for some) fact of life.

#8 12:16am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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the pop music phenomenon will not go away, catering music to the masses. RBT is yet but one medium of delivering that music.

#9 12:16am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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This weekend, telcos, CPs and labels are working hard to save the RBT industry they had built, from an ignorant Indonesian government.

#10 12:17am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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Yesterday BRTI issued a letter that all premium SMS services, most likely including RBT, must be shut down.

#11 12:19am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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But BRTI also said that all services may resume; subscribers can re-register to the services they want with no additional cost. RBT also.

#12 12:20am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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Think of it as a "system reboot": getting rid of users that may have inadvertently subscribed to a service, but keeping the 'real' customers

#13 12:22am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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the premium SMS and RBT industry is not dead just yet - but they'll have to work hard on getting back those customers again.

#14 12:24am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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the premium SMS & RBT industry is not without its own 'bad boys'; the guys behind the recent 'stolen phone credit' fiasco.

#15 12:32am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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and the order to shutdown all premium SMS services, will cost millions of $ in loss of customers, definitely.

#16 12:36am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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here's the tough question: how many are real customers, and how many were "trapped" via marketing/technology methods?

#17 12:38am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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my opinion: if customers love any service, they will keep using it. If they don't, they won't. Right, @yonan32 ? :D

#18 12:41am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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and the funny thing about selling any service, is that you'd hear the complaints more often than you hear the praises. Same applies here.

#19 12:46am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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but in all fairness, Indonesia's troubled SMS industry has had more than its share of bad press. Time for a reset.

#20 12:49am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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BUT - the commoditization of recorded music - RBT, MP3, CD - is only one aspect of the music industry.

#21 12:57am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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Recorded music as a commodity is also one of the reasons the music industry has grown so much over the years.

#22 12:58am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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sure there are many ways for musicians to make music, but that also means, if the RBT industry were to stop, it's a big problem.

#23 1:01am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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the SMS/RBT industry is not without problems. But doesn't mean an industrywide shutdown is necessary.

#24 1:09am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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the government is taking the easy way out with the "system reboot". We'll just have to see on whether they will support the industry itself

#25 1:11am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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the SMS/RBT industry was self-regulated by the telcos. It should have been regulated (and incentivized) by the government.

#26 1:14am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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so we'll just have to see, how things play out next week. We'll see, eventually, how many people actually do use RBT.

#27 1:17am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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the approximately IDR 60 billion/week RBT industry will most likely shrink. Will it follow the fate of the premium number?

#28 1:20am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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the 'premium call' industry virtually died when 10 years ago after similar outrages from consumers regarding overcharging.

#29 1:22am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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The fear is that the RBT industry will be a casualty of war, of a battle that is actually from overcharging premium SMS services.

#30 1:24am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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so if the SMS/RBT industry were to die a slow death starting today, there are real casualties: the employees of these companies. I was one.

#31 1:26am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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for better or worse, I played a very small part building the RBT industry in Indonesia, so it is sad to see things the way they are today.

#32 1:28am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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the only problem is, with this imminent SMS/RBT industry shutdown, why aren't we hearing the consumers complaining about the shutdown?

#33 1:35am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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we'll see, if the shutdown happens, if whether there will be consumers complaining that their services have been involuntarily shut down

#34 1:38am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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so, perhaps it's time to rethink music services.

#35 1:38am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

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