As mysteries of the universe go, few remain more perplexing to me than understanding why otherwise sane human beings would pay real money to register their preference for one ‘American Idol’ contestant over another – as opposed to, say, arguing with their mate about same, which costs nothing but domestic tranquility.
But text-message-vote they do – by the millions – and Cingular Wireless is more than happy to collect the money.
According to today’s Boston Globe: “Last season, 41.5 million text votes were sent in; Cingular charges between $19.99 per month for a text package with 2,500 messages included and 10 cents per message on a pay-as-you-go plan, meaning the company raked in as much as $4.15 million in text messaging fees from ‘American Idol’ votes alone last year.”
Don’t even get me started on the $3 billion market for ring tones.
