Ringtones on iTunes - Someone Explain This

So, I’m a bit late to the game in watching the update from Apple that happened yesterday. I’m watching the keynote in spurts as I’m making some code updates and saw that they are offering ringtones on iTunes now as well as being able to create ringtones from purchased songs. I don’t get this. Pay a buck for a song, then pay another buck to take a 30 second segment of that song and make it play when your cell phone rings. The fact that people pay for this is incredible.

Going back even three years to my Audiovox 5600, any WAV or WMA file could be a ringtone. Cost? Free. Being the 24 nerd I am, I’ve had mine as the sound the desk phones at CTU make for quite a while now. In fact, during the past two season premiers I did a double take to make sure it wasn’t my phone ringing when it was one on screen. Given that show pretty much jumped the shark last season, I’ll probably have to find something new.

I’ll give Apple credit - they spin this as a super cool, neato feature and they will make money off of it, for sure. I just don’t get it though.