Ring tones are today's business says the Music Industry

The music industry sees mobile phones as powerful outlets for promoting their artists and distributing music for profit, according to an article in USA Today.

"In recent months, record labels have entered deals with wireless carriers and other companies (such as Upoc.com) to promote their artists by selling rights to their recordings and images for use in screen savers, digital images and ringtones.

The recording industry hopes to drive CD sales and, eventually, direct sales of songs over mobile phones".

"Ring tones are today's business and the downloads are tomorrow's business." -- Paul Vidich, executive vice president for business development for Warner Music Group.

More Matrix Reloaded ringtones

Found more Matrix Reloaded ringtones, in monophonic and polyphonic versions on Upoc.com.

Islamic ringtones

Newly launched French speaking mobile portal MobIslam offers arabic ringtones, to "Islamise your cell phone".

Select Sound Ringtones from Zingy

Want to be different? (for Sprint PCS Vision phone users only) Zingy.com has an original selection of sound ringtones. Our daily picks: Boiling water, a Kiss and for those who are feeling down and out, Applause.

Ringtones deprive copyright owners of revenues

The Star Online reports on an article published by CNet/Asia, saying that "as many as 65% of all ringtone companies are unlicensed, thus depriving the copyright owners of siginificant revenues. And according to the senior vice-president for new media at music label EMI Group Jay Samit, estimated earnings from ringtones should account for 10% of the recording industry's earnings in coming years".

In 2001, EMI Publishing in the United States sued Calfornia-based Global Media One for $ 45 million for copyright infringment for it's Yourmobile.com web site selling ringtones. A lawsuit regarded by some as a ridiculous, but according to British intellectual copyright lawyer interviewed on CNN and reported by The Star Online, "the most recognisable melody of a song, even if it is only 10 seconds out of three minutes, is considered "substantial copying."

In trying to get a handle on copyright protection and to avoid what happened to the music industry on the Internet with Napster and other file sharing websites, last June, Nokia released a software toolkit enabling programmers to create ring tones and images that will last only for a limited time. To play them indefinitely, the user will have to pay a set fee which will give him access to the correct digital key, unlocking the full version (cf Temporary Ringtones). And for more on ringtones and copyright issues, cf Copyright Protection category in Ringtonia.

Kazaa to share ringtones and phone wallpapers?

Favorite wireless columnist Aloysius Choong for Asia C/Net, wonders if Kazaa will next be sharing ringtones and phone wallpapers. A nightmare scenario for phone makers and operators, but ironically, it could also turn out to be a massive boost for 3G traffic. Wait and See....

Estimated Ringtone Market

According to in an article entitled Whoopie-Cushion Ring tones Big Biz, IDC Research estimates that ring-tone sales were almost $17 million in 2002 and will jump to more than $400 million by 2005. Music insiders estimate music publishers will make $50 million to $70 million from licensing for ringtones in 2003.

In this same article, we learn that thousands of customers have already downloaded ring tones mimicking flatulence since ringtone provider Modtones began offering them three weeks ago. Not exactly one of the high points of the ringtone world... Good grief.

«SongMail» and «Tag a Track»

Shazam, best known for it's music recognition "tagging" technology (cf Name that Tune) is promoting the launch of two new services: SongMail, a service which allows users to send a 30-second song clip to a friend's mobile, and Tag a Track, a service which enables users to buy the ringtones of the track they have 'tagged'. According to Netimperative

«My Way», not a ringtone but a dialing tone

Witnet International will be introducing a new telecommunications service technology to major service providers in North America for their customers.

Called My Way, it allows mobile users to customize the ring sound the caller hears dialing a cell phone number. This is not to be confused with customized rigtones, rather when someone calls your cell phone they will hear your own personal choice of song, or voice whether it's a pop hit, rock and roll classic, an actors' or child's voice greeting instead of the traditional ring. Per an article in Cellular News.

The Royal Opera of London offers ringtones

The Royal Opera of London will be offering ringtones themed around particular operas and ballets. Along with a text messaging campaign, the Royal Opera aims to broaden the appeal of opera and ballet and attract younger people, per an article in PMN.

Elvis ringtones

For Elvis fans, not only does UK ElvisNews.com offer a selection of Elvis phone covers, but an array of the King's songs as ringtones. Always On My Mind...

Original Ringtones By Martin Plante

Bathed in music since he was born, his mother was a professional soprano and his father a violinist, French born pianist Martin Plante was the keyboardist of Canadian band "Bundock" for years and played as well for top classical ballet teachers from the Paris Opera, and for ballet legend David Howard of New York.

Since 2001, when he is not performing in public, he composes original ringtones for Cell Phones about.com and is touted as "the world's first ringtone artist to compose music exclusively for cell phones". Update 24/05 : Interview of Martin Plante by Andy Rigga in Canada.com.

Boy George, pop icon of the 80s, singer, composer, producer and disk jokey all- in-one, was probably the very first (very famous) ringtone composer for cell phones. His first title was called "Sonic Trigger Ringtone" and was available exclusively to UK Vodafone subscribers.

Matrix Reloaded Ringtone

It's all you could read about in the papers and see on the news here in LA, following the release Thursday of cult film "The Matrix Reloaded". Views and reviews and how teenagers tried to get by the R Rated film restriction. Well, kids can download the music of the film as a ringtone on Smart.

Nursery Rhyme Ringtones

For very very young cell phone users or most likely their mothers, a place online where to download favorite nursery rhyme ringtones. Our childhood classics seem all to be there ... from London Bridge, to Mary Had a Little Lamb, Farmer and the Dell, Here we go Around the Mullberry Bush, Rock a Bye Baby, to Row, Row, Row Your Boat...

Different Sounds

As my sister complained that her new Nokia picture phone did not have a single ringtone which sounded simply like a phone ringing as an option in her handset, I searched the web for a website suggesting such a thing. A hard thing to find, but this one caught my eye, not so much for the couple of ringing tones it offers, but for it's original catalogue. Called Different Sounds, it offers, well, exactly that. Take your pick: Bubble, electric typewriter, fax tone, hmmm, immediate car break, mobile interference, police siren and a personal favorite, ice cream cart coming.

Monkey Business

If you don't want to settle for your Nokia or Siemens ringtones, MonkeyTone lets you compose you own, edit, or install new ones.

Telly Tones

Looking for the ringtone of your favorite TV show? TellyTones UK provides just that with over 100 televison series tunes, from Alvin and the Chipmunks to Bewitched, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dallas, ER, Hill Street Blues, MASH, Murder She Wrote, to Sex and The City, X Files and even the popular game show, Who wants to be a Millionaire.

Recording ringtones from a CD

In a special promotional offer, Siemens Mobile France is offering with every purchase of a Siemens C55 handset, a CD with 99 original sounds to personalize your cell phone (they run the gamut from animal cries, to laughter, to a car honking and a bed squeaking, to classical music). Thanks to the C55's recording function, the ringtones can be recorded by the phone by approaching the handset to a CD player. Per an article in mobicity.

"Illegal downloads of mobile ringtones costs music industry '$ 1million per day'"

Searching for ringtone news this morning, I fell on this article published a year ago by Envisional, a company which offers Intellectual Property protection and monitoring solutions. It's basically a warning that another Napster is in the making, as the craze for downloading musical ringtones to mobile phones has created massive intellectual property abuses that have the potential to cost the music industry as much as $1 million dollars per day.

The articles gives interesting insight into this market:

"Envisional identified hundreds of sites on the Internet that make ringtones available for download to mobile phones. While most sites charge users for each tune they download (£1.50 per tone), Forrester analyst Korsten Schmidt, a Dutch industry analyst who has been investigating the ringtone phenomenon, says very few of these companies ever return any royalties to the record companies who own the copyright to the tunes.

The record companies are entitled to a fee of 7.5 US cents for every tune downloaded meaning that, with hundreds of sites allowing hundreds of thousands of ringtones to be downloaded every day, the music industry is suffering massive losses due to copyright abuse".

Everquest : Online Role-Playing game Ringtones

Sony Music Mobile Products Group has teamed with Sony Entertainment to offfer thirteen different ringtones from the music of Everquest, the wildly successful Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing game

They are available to U.S. subscribers of AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, T-Mobile and Cingular Wireless and sell for $1.99 each, according to a press release published in Business Wire.

I had heard of Video games ringtones, but this is the first time I've heard of online multi-player role game ringtones.

Gospel Ringtones

A team of Christians who are professional in information technology as well as leaders in local churches, have put together a website offering Gospel Ringtones and a subscription service, offering bi-weekly «Memory Verses» by SMS, of inspirational extracts from the Bible. Hallelujah.

PimpTones

Searching for playboy logos and ringtones, as Wireless Entertainment Services in Finland had announced a while ago signing a distribution agreement with Nextones to bring Playboy Playmates to cell phones in the US, I fell across this, uh, unusual ringtone provider called PimpTones. I thought it might be a language problem as it describes itself as "The only site where you can pimp out your phone with the latest Ring Tones, Mobile Phone Games, Color Graphics...". Its actually where you can download Rap ringtones with titles such as P.I.M.P. and Wanksta. Just a generation gap I guess.

PlayPhone' ringtone packs

Launched April 29, Play-Phone is a new publisher dedicated to bringing the best wireless entertainment content to retailers and operators across North America.

The company offers entertainment retail packs giving consumers a tangible product to purchase. Already available in more than 4,000 retail stores across the nation, PlayPhone expects to have at least fifteen branded packs in more than 10,000 stores by the end of the third quarter of 2003. The company will announce a number of specific retail partnerships in the coming weeks. According to an article in Business Wire.

PlayPhone-branded retail packs currently include monophonic and polyphonic ringtones, as well as state-of-the-art color screensavers and backgrounds.

MTV Award Ringtones

If it's been nominated for an MTV Europe Music Award, you'll find a ringtone to match, on the MTVringtones.com website. Firmly believing that no self-respecting award ceremony should be without nominee ringtones to download, MTV has them all. From Best Song and Best Video to Best Male and Best Newcomer, there's a ringtone to match every nomination in every category.

Mobile Streams launches Phone Furniture and more on mobile guru Simon Buckingham

Mobile Streams announced the launch of a a new brand called "Phone Furniture" to represent its B2C consumer ringtones and content business, accroding to a release by PRNewsWire.

Phone Furniture will comprise consumer content business such as the creation, design, distribution and delivery of content such as ringtones and animated and static backgrounds through its own network of 300 websites such as Ringtones.com.

Mobile Streams is an industry leader in the ringtones market, creating & distributing all formats from monophonic through to "voice" & 40 Polyphony ringtones. All their ringtones are created in-house by a full time creation team. They license ringtones to dozens of large & smaller customers including 3, Samsung Fun Club & Sony Music.

Simon Buckingham, 29, Founder and CEO of Mobile Streams, is a mobile phone guru who has made his fortune from text messages and ringtones. He was featured in article yesterday in the BBC.

Sony to develop compelling and innovative wireless music and entertainment services for mobile consumers

Sony Music Mobile Products Group acquired Runtones, a wireless entertainment and technology company, last fall, and recently announced an agreement to embed ringtones on Sony Ericsson phones sold in the US, Canada, and Latin America, per an article in Mercury News.