“Mobile Music A Revenueless Land Grab”, says MocoNews. Somehow, I don’t find that hard to believe. They point to an FT article out of MIDEM, the big digital music confab in Cannes this week, with execs not wanting to talk about how little they’re making from mobile music — and they’re all simply saying that prices are too low. Let’s assume they’re talking about downloads and other services, not ringtones, since they’ve been riding that gravy train for all it’s worth for a few years.

Here’s a thought, guys: maybe people don’t want to spend money on overpriced crap that’s cumbersome to use and ultimately unfulfilling for any number or reasons. Low prices aren’t the problem. They’re out of whack with the actual value users get in exchange. Offer users sufficient value, and they’ll pay more. Offer services where they don’t get their money’s worth, and they won’t. It’s that simple.

Too many mobile music efforts have focused on delivering music downloads directly to the phone, and nothing else, with operators thinking that the anywhere, anytime access is worth a premium price, though it sounds like consumers disagree. The market’s settled on a price (generally dictated by Apple) for downloads, and that price is going to hold regardless of the platform. If they can’t make a profit at these levels, something’s gotta give, whether it’s record labels or what they’re offering.

Full-track downloading really is a pretty boring mobile music application, when the platform’s capable of delivering much more interactivity, and services could build on the core communications functionality of the mobile platform. If there’s no money in downloads, leave that market to online providers, or find a cheaper alternative to setting up your own shop, and offer better services. And if you insist on trying to sell downloads, don’t hamstring them with copy protection so they’re locked to a phone, or worse yet, to a particular service.

On that note, Thor-Arne Pettersen, chairman of the24, which provides content to mobile devices, has an early contender for quote of the year: “If you move from Vodafone to Orange, all your music is lost and you have to buy it again. That annoys kids and encourages piracy,” he said. Establishing clashing proprietary systems “is like peeing your pants to keep warm. It’s very short-sighted and you stink afterwards.”