For any song you already own on CD, Apple is asking you to pay three times for it in order to use it as a ringtone on your iPhone: once for the CD you’ve already purchased, again to buy a needless duplicate of the track from the iTunes Store, and a third time to generate the ringtone.
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Word. I’d be interested to know whether it’s Apple, AT&T, the music labels, or any combination of the three who actually want this state of affairs.
My guess is the iTunes music store partners, who didn't want to lose out on ringtone revenue. It's hard to believe that Apple were hugely keen on the feature considering how poorly they implemented it.