True Tones on yourmobile.com

True Tones are availabe on Yourmobile.com for American subscribers to (some)wireless carriers and owners of a Nokia 3650 handset. Call 1.866.444.TONE (or 1.866.444.8663) to order with a credit card (costs a $1.99).

Happy Forecasting

The downloadable ring tone market is to double its revenues to $4 billion (EUR 3.51 billion) in 2008, according to Strategy Analytics in a report entitled "Real Music Ringtones: Changing Dynamics In The $4 Billion Ringtone Market."

This report identifies the introduction of real music ringtones as the catalyst for music companies such as BMG, Sony Music, EMI, Warner Chappell and Universal, to become more actively involved in the ringtone value chain. Additionally, carriers will win the battle for consumer dollars spent on ringtone services, as they improve the shape of their data offerings, reports Telecom Paper.

Siemens M55 mixes ringtones

The new Siemens M55 GPRS/Tri Band phone includes an integrated Mobile Synthesiser for mixing ringtones and composing MMS soundtracks, according to Gizmo.com.

Ringtones and homepages

Shakhawat Salauddin's welcoming and friendly home page offers funny sms ringtones, all the latest hindi and bangla ringtones.

For anyone thinking of developping their own ringtone business, just be careful about the copyright issue. In 2001, EMI, the music publishing group, filed a $45 million lawsuit against Global Music One for copyright infringement, for offering free ringtone renderings of artists from their catalogue on website yourmobile.com. This was the first lawsuit filed related to ringtones.

Nike's "The Battle" ad ringtones

YourMobile.com is offering it's subscribers ringtones based on the music in Nike's "The Battle" ad series, featuring Steve Nash, Gary Payton, Tony Parker, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson.

The most popular musical TV commercial downloaded as a ringtone in Europe so far as been MTV's "Underpants V3".

Behind the ringtone scene

Today I though I would write about a company I have just read about called Soundonweb. They are one of the leading content producers in Europe, delivering ringtones to the SonyEricsson assembly line. These are the ringtones which come with your phone, which are pre-installed.

Soundweb produces most of the Hit-Charts in Europe and the USA, such as the UK Top-40, both mono and polyphonic format. Twenty five professional musicians work on this alone. And the company collaborates closely with Nokia as well.

Ringtones are music to the entertainment industry

Forbes has an overview story on the ringtones market, reports Moco News.

Some interesting figures:

-- In Japan and Europe ring tones are already a $5 billion business.

-- In the late-starting U.S., ring-tone sales are expected to be two times the dollar volume of CD singles by the end of this year, reaching above $50 million, says research firm IDC.

-- Some 10 million music lovers will download them.

-- Already reggae star Sean Paul's hit single "Get Busy" has sold more ring tones than CD singles, some $400,000 worth.

--Music publishers typically receive royalties of 10% from songs. If artists write their own tunes, they get a cut of up to 50%. BMI, which licenses performance rights to 4.5 million songs, expects to add $7 million to its $600 million in annual royalties from ring tones sold in the U.S.

This is music to the entertainment industry, as the market for solo songs on discs has collapsed from its peak of $272 million in 1997, victim of pirating services like Kazaa and Morpheus.

Dizzee Rascal fans can download free mono and polyphonic ringtones

Dizzee Rascal, an 18 year old MC from east London released his first album, Boy In Da Corner, this week through XL Recordings and has launched his Website where fans can download free mono and polyphonic ringtones, icons and wallpaper.

Ringtone tie-ins to new album releases is definitely here to stay.

-- Recently, the new Ricky Martin album debuted in South Korea, on cellphones.

-- Warner Bros in April 2003, launched an opt-in marketing campaign by SMS, in advance of the release of Madonna's new album. Subscribers received an SMS and a downloadable sound clip.

"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. cf Ringtonia.

Ringtone revenue and download average

According to a report published in Telecom Paper:

-- In the last month revenues for ringtone downloads rose by 63 percent in Germany, 65 percent in Austria and 15 percent in the UK.

-- Customers download an average of four ringtones per month.

-- Top 40 ringtones are the most popular amongst t-zones users, but also oldies can enjoy the customers' preference.

International Ringtones Meetup Day

South Africans can meet up with other local Mobile fantatics to trade ringtones every 2nd Tuesday of the month. The next one is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug 13. So far, 185 have signed up.

Ring tones may be alarm bells

News Today Net out of India sends out a warning to mobile users who may not understand the full implication of downloading ringtones. Experts say that when a ringtone comes free, you can be sure the service provider does not have a licence and downloading such a ringtone and using it is a punishable offence.

"So watch out, your love for a melodious tune may end up making you face the music.".

South African ringtones celebrate Nelson Mandela's birthday

In celebration of Nelson Mandela's 85th birthday today, here are some South African ringtones. UK mobile subscribers can download the tunes, anyone else can sample the music. Happy Birthday Dear Nelson Mandela.

'Anti-Islamic' mobile ringtones create stir

A controversy is raging in Lucknow, India, over the allegedly anti-Islamic ring tones introduced in mobile phones by Reliance Infocomm, "India's biggest business house".

Reliance has labelled some tones as Islamic, but some Muslim clerics and Islamic hardliners insist that calling the tones Islamic is blasphemous as music goes against the tenets of Islam, and have sent the company legal notice to withdraw the tones.

According to Shia cleric Maulana Arshad Jafri "all music is alien to Islam. So by introducing musical ring tones as Islamic tones, Reliance has hurt sentiments of Muslims".

Some Islamic clergymen, however, think an unnecessary controversy is being created to gain popularity. All music cannot be termed anti-Islamic, according to Web.Mid-Day. See other related article in Sify.

Moviso's prepaid ringtone cards hit Wal-Mart

Moviso, a leading provider of mobile data services in North America, announced new distribution of its prepaid ringtone cards through more than 2,000 select Wal-Mart store locations across the country. Moviso was the first company to take prepaid cards beyond minutes and offer ringtones at popular music and convenience stores.

Moviso's prepaid ringtone card includes licensed content from Rock, Hip-Hop and R&B artists. Each prepaid card purchase gives consumers three ringtones, which they can select from a catalog of more than 15 compositions.

How does it work?

Each prepaid ringtone card is activated immediately upon purchase and contains simple instructions and a unique PIN for accessing content. Customers call a 1-800 number from the cell phone, enter the PIN and select the content they wish to download. Customers can also visit the Moviso Web site at yourmobile.com, to view and download from the company's extensive list of over 2,000 additional ringtones. [Business Wire Press release]

MTV to Morph Web and Wireless in New Programme

Moco News reports on a new MTV show launching in Europe this week called MTV Mash, bringing together Web and wireless. Ten localised MTV Mash microsites providing original content based around the show, including ringtones, screensavers and downloadable games will go live around Europe.

And per a related article in Netimperative, Motorola is to start shipping mobile handsets with pre-loaded exclusive MTV content in time for Christmas as part of a $75m deal struck between the two companies in March.

Original RingTones

Can't seem to find much new today regarding ringtones, so I'm featuring a post on a company which I've written up before, for those who missed it. It has by far, one of the most original collections of items for sale I have ever come across.

ORIGINAL TONES -- March 18, 2003

The work of artists, Thomson & Craighead's dot-store company has a very original set of items for sale (such as "Other People's e-cards", "Under Construction" tatoos and my personal favorite, a "Google Tea Towel" sporting a series of authentic search engine results returned to a user when the criteria, 'Please Help Me' were entered into the search field) and, some very unusual ringtones.

-- A set of three "harmonically related tones" designed for parents with one child and made with complementary simultaneous playback in mind. Inspired from Prokoviev's «Peter and the Wolf».

-- Two different Morse code tones as well as a silent ringtone (!).

-- And one may also purchase a CD to teach birds to sing mobile phone ringtones. This must come from one of the most off-the-wall ringtone stories that circulated in May 2001, about a Danish man who claimed the sparrows in his garden were chirping the Nokia classic tone. Which of course led Finish Mobile Avenue to offer a variety of bird ringtones. You can listen to some samples here.

Playing classical ringtones are music to his ears.

There is someone out there who is not critical of ringtones, and he is a music professor besides! His name is Neil Cockburn and he is head of organ studies at Mount Royal's Conservatory of Music in Canada. He is quoted in CBC for saying: "A cell phone playing the classics is music to my ears". Cockburn believes that classical music as ringtones may lead to a greater appreciation of the classics and even expose people to such music for the first time, even if the quality of sound is not the greatest.

He even allows his students to bring their cell phones to class, if they set their ringtones to Bach, Beethoven or Brahms.

Shazam seals Universal catalogue

UK-based mobile music recognition firm Shazam has scooped a deal with major record label Universal Music, giving it access to songs from more than 1,000 artists.

Shazam, whose flagship music recognition service enables users to have music being played in a pub or club recognised and the track name and artist texted back, already has deals with AIM, and Warner, and said that it is continuing discussions with other major record labels to gain access to their music catalogues, according to Netimperative.

The deal with Universal gives it access to the Universal Catalogue, including music from Polydor, Islands Records Group and Mercury Records, enabling it to use 30-second audio clips as part of its Songmail service in the UK.

Songmail is 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'

Nokia Adds Full Tracks to Ring Tones

From Moco News: Nokia has been working closely with the music industry to make them port music to cell phones, and in effect persuade labels and music fans that mobile listening works. In June, the company did a Pan-European marketing agreement with Warner Music International, which involved WMI providing music tracks for the new Nokia 3300 -- the company's first phone designed to play full-length recordings, rather than ring tones.

See also Nokia and Warner looking to extend ringtone deal by Europemedia, "Nokia and Warner Music International have revealed to Reuters that they are eager to extend their marketing partnership regarding the launch of the new Nokia 3300 handset, for which Warner licensed to the Finnish company full-length recordings from three of its most recent signings".

Happy Forecasting

Leading research firm IDC projects the U.S. ringtone market alone will grow to more than $1 billion by 2007, according to PRNewswire,

Ringback tones are anything but annoying

"For those who thought cell phones couldn't get any more annoying, brace yourself. Personalized "ringback tones" are on the way.

This is a surprisingly negative take from News.com on a novel feature for cell phones pionereed by SK Telecom, Korea's largest mobile operator, which launched in April 2002 and it quickly became so popular that the carrier had to scramble to keep up with demand.

A ringback tone allows the mobile user to personalize the ringing sound that your caller hears when dialling your cell phone number. Instead of hearing the familiar ringing sound until you answer, he will hear for instance, Beethoven's Fifth or Madonna's "American Life" instead, or a pre-recorded message such as Happy Birthday or I love you. You can chose a specific ringback tone for a specific contact in your phone book or for different times of the day. More annoying than "ring ring"? More likely ringbacks will come like a delightful surprise to callers.

According to a Yankee Group study, South Korean wireless carriers collected a total of $91.4 million in ringback revenue last year.

For more on ringback tones, check articles and references in ringtonia.com.

And see articles today in The Star entitled «Banking on youth market for ringback tones», on Malaysia's launch of a ringback service last month. And PMNews's article entitled «Chinese subscribers get incoming ringtone service», which attracted 16,000 users in it's first week.

the voices of sumo wrestling stars to be used as mobile phone ringtones

Japanese company NTT-X and the Nihon Sumo Kyokai , an organisation that promotes sumo wrestling, have launched a service that enables the voices of sumo wrestling stars to be used as mobile phone ringtones.

The service is available to subscribers to NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service, and a total of 250 ringtone messages are on offer, using 11 wrestlers' voices. Instead of ringing when a call comes through, the subscriber's handset will say "Hi. This is Asashoryu calling," and other such messages, according to Electric News.

A mobile phone-based mosquito repellent

Well it's not exactly a ringtone that wards off mosquitos, but anti-mosquito sound waves which can be downloaded from Korean mobile operator SK Telecom onto cell phones, which will repel them within a range of one meter. "The mosquito repelling service uses a particular spectrum of sound waves, which are undetectable by human ears. But the frequencies annoy mosquitoes". From TechDirt Wireless.

More on animal noises made in the wild

Here's more on The British Library's offering of animal noises made in the wild and where they can be found. They are available on Mobiletones, for owners of Samsung T100 or V200 handsets. But anyone can sample one of the 40 sounds in their catalogue, check them out! Here's my selection: VERY VERY frightening-I-kid-you-not, the Desert Cobra Attack. Hippos Bellowing is full of merriment. Extremely irritating, though as a general rule bird sounds are proven to be relaxing, Pengouins colony, and exactly what you would expect, Pigs grunting sounds like, well, pigs grunting. Unfortunately, the much written about "gorilla pounding his chest" sound is not in this first offering.

In this very amusing article published in The Telegraph, Bryony Gordon samples the animal ringtones while commuting into London and later, wondering around the City. "Allocating a particular wildlife ringtone to a specific caller captured the imagination of many - particularly the concept of using howling wolves for the in-laws. In Trafalgar Square, Linda Belenkin, 47, laughed when she heard the pig grunts. "I might download that and use it as a warning that my bank manager is calling".

"gorilla beating its chest" ringtone, courtesy of The British Library

New Zealand's National Business Review reports on a story published in The Times Online on the The British Library -- which has the world's largest animal sound archive -- licensing 40 recordings from its vast collection of animal noises, for use as mobile phone ringtones. According to The Times, the catalogue will include "the raucous screeches of the Amazonian parrot, the grunts of pigs and the thuds of a gorilla beating its chest".

"The first animal ringtones will be available on the Internet later this week for the latest “polyphonic” mobiles. The sounds are downloaded for between £1.50 and £4 each", reports The Times Online.

Ringing In The New

This article was published June 11, in Grammy Magazine and somehow I missed it. It's a must read because it's a wonderful overview of the business of Ringtones, perceived "as the gateway offering that will get people involved in streaming-music subscription services, downloading clips of music and engaging in new ways with music providers."

The article is signed by Xeni Jardin , an amazingly cell-phone savvy, prolific journalist who writes for Wired, Wired News and LA Weekly. Xeni Jardin is also the blogstar of boingboinb.net and of her own phonecamblog.

Guess the ringtune

Forget playing "name that tune", now it's "guess that ringtone". Since yesterday, Hutch subscribers (called Orange in Mumbai) can participate in a contest organized by Rediff.com to win a VCD player, reports Agency Faqs.

To play, mobile users send off an SMS with «RT» to a short code. They receive in return a ringtone with a question. If answered correctly, 2 more ringtones and questions will follow.

Ringtones Domainia

Ringtones is a popular domain name with all extensions («.org», «.net», «.biz», «.info», «.us», «.tv», «.cc») having been understandably registered, but «.bz» is still available. What uh, is «.bz again»?. But who registered ringtones.com? Mobile Life Streams Ltd, a British company according to Who Is. Interesting, all extensions relating to "ringtoneblog" are available, including ringtoneblog.com. Maybe because it sounds so ugly.

Mini-CDs embedded in soft drink cups

This is not about ringtones, but it could be some day, but about a totally innovative promotion of an artist, read about in Online Blog. Pop singer Rachel Farris's independent record label is embedding mini-CDs in the lids of soft drink cups at movie theaters nationwide and a few theme parks. The straw fits through the hole in the middle of the disc. The CD features a couple of songs and a mini video.

Zingy's new sound ringtones

Zingy has some new voice ringtones. Of note, well sort of: Ghost , bullet hit, woman moan, puke, snore, run, traffic jam ...