In "Vanishing Act," an excellent article by the San Diego Union-Tribune's George Varga about albums versus songs and changes in music consumption, the best insights come from Thomas Dolby, famous for "She Blinded Me With Science" but less famous for Beatnik Inc, his company that has played a role in creating ringtone technologies.

In describing how ringtones and albums are linked, Dolby says, "It's like whistling a song – people are just quoting a melody from a record they like. “But people don't consider it the Black Eyed Peas, unless the ringtone is from the record."

And what about consumers' willingness to a higher price for a download than for the single song they think is overpriced at $0.99? (Coolfer has wondered about this for years.) Dolby thinks people are paying for the ringtone from their fashion budget, not the entertainment budget that accounts for music downloads.

"They pay an extra $10 to get the right logo on their sneakers, when they could get a cheap knockoff, because when you're a kid at the mall, what you're wearing is important. Similarly, when your phone goes off, you can't look like a dork. It's just like whistling the Black Eyed Peas' song – it's not the real thing."

Other than the occasional mention of the mythical $20 CD (sorry, people rarely pay $20 for CDs any more and it's time reporters get some accurate numbers) it's a very well done, comprehensive article that talks to musicians (Neil Young, Jenny Lewis) and labels to see how they approach music formats and what they see for the future.