June 29, 2003
Sony Music and Warner Music license ringtones to Sprint PCS
Two of the world's largest record labels, Sony Music and Warner Music, plan to license their music to Sprint PCS in an effort to mine new markets to offset a slump in music sales.
Sprint PCS plans to offer song snippets from Sony Music as ringtones, rather than the conventional computerized warbles and tweets, according to Moco News.
"While computerized ring tones based on popular songs have been available for some time, Sprint PCS is the first U.S. company to use actual snippets of songs to be sold as ring tones. Many phones in Europe and Asia already offer actual song snippets as ring tones", reports News.com.
"Sprint PCS also plans to expand a music subscription service that allows customers to use a wireless Internet connection to listen to, or "stream," complete songs from Warner Music.
Warner Music estimates that the ringtone business exceeds $2 billion worldwide, the bulk of which outside the United States. The company expects ringtone sales to exceed $50 million in the US", according to News.com.
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