T-Mobile gets musical with Sony

T-Mobile has struck a global partnership with Sony Music that will enable it to offer a wider range of mobile music content to its subscribers, reports e-consultancy.

"The deal, which the companies claim is the first on a global scale between a mobile operator and major music label, marks a major expansion of Sony Music's mobile initiatives.

T-Mobile customers will be able to access a range of music content, including Sony Music Real Tones, which use original song clips from top Sony artists including Michael Jackson, Beyoncé and David Bowie, as well as polyphonic ringtones and wallpaper images.

T-Mobile and Sony Music said they plan to launch a number of other music-related mobile products and services later on in the year. These will focus particularly on developing customised mobile assets designed for distribution across the T-Mobile Network in conjunction with major new Sony Music artist releases."

Pictones: the first multimedia ringtones

Paris based mobile music entertainment company Musiwave has just announced the launch of Pictones, the world's first multimedia ringtones, on the Series 60 Platform.

"Pictones add live, animated images to ringtones, combining Musiwave's popular Musitone(TM) real music ringtones with corresponding animated images to meet growing consumer demand for live, artist-branded mobile content", according to Symbion One.

European provider of RingBack Tone Solution launched

Alatto Technologies, the leading provider of mobile multi-media solutions today has launched vConnect, the next generation RingBack Tone solution for mobile operators, according to a company press release.

RingBack Tones are the latest craze in mobile personalisation replacing the boring “bring-bring” (or “brrrrrring”) sound every time the call connects with the users choice of music track.

RingBack Tones has seen the fastest take up of any wireless service to-date
with a market estimate at $ 1.7 billion (euro 1.5 billion) by next year.

Patriotic Ringtones and Prime Minister Voice mail used in campaign

This summer, the national election campaign in the world's largest democracy is set to get an unprecedented technological dimension: an "e-campaign" by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to Reuters.

"The next time a phone rings in an Indian home, it could be a call from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee himself -- a recording -- listing his government's achievements and asking people to vote for the BJP to help build a strong India.

And ringtones that play nationalistic songs, party symbols and pictures of Vajpayee that can be used as logos on mobile phones and computer screensavers".

Weekly Moviso Ringtone Charts

You will find below the top-20 Moviso ringtones this week on Movie and TV Themes:

1 Pink Panther Theme
2 Bad Boys - Theme from Cops Inner Circle
3 Mission Impossible Theme
4 Sex and the City Theme Theme
5 Inspector Gadget Theme
6 James Bond 007 Theme
7 Knightrider Theme
8 Scooby Doo, Where Are You Theme
9 Addams Family
10 Top Gun Theme
11 Ghostbusters, Ray Parker Jr.
12 Good The Bad & The Ugl,y Ennio Morricone
13 Axel F (Beverly Hills Cop), Harold Faltermeyer
14 Fraggle Rock, 1 Muppets
15 Good Ol' Boys, (The Dukes Of Hazzard) Theme
16 Theme From Shaft, Isaac Hayes
17 I'll Be There For You (Friends Theme), Rembrandts
18 Soul Bossa Nova (Austin Powers Theme) Quincy Jones
19 Gonna Fly Now (Rocky Theme), Bill Conti
20 Linus and Lucy (Peanuts theme), Vince Guaraldi

If anyone would like the complete list including Hip Hop/Rap and Rock, send me an e-mail and I will forward it to you. emily@netsurf.ch.

Music to be the next major driver of data revenues for mobile operators

Speaking at the 3GSM show in Cannes, on the Charles Dunstone, the head of Carphone Warehouse said operators should do more to differentiate their content to gain customer loyalty, reports Total Telecom.

"Drawing on the success of portable music devices, Dunstone predicted that downloadable music will be the next major driver of data revenues for operators.

"The Apple iPod has begun to normalise the idea of downloaded content on a portable device," he said. "Will phones become iPods or will iPods become the phone? I don't know, but it won't take long before people want content on their iPods immediately without going to their computer."

Interactive Live Show

One of my readers, Mirai, sent me this interesting e-mail about his being the first European to play a Techno gig using mobile technology in 2001, which was broadcast nationally across Japan.

As a freelance audio engineer for Yamaha in Tokyo, he had all the mobile
synth modules to play with and toured Japan with the Interactive Live Show.

The audience of around 1000 people were split into 4 groups, each given a telephone number to call. The phones were on stage, behind a transparent video screen (that covered the whole stage), and the audience were asked to call up the phones during the music, which set off melodies in 'C', mixed with the music.

And interesting, Mirai was recently called in by T-Mobile/Handy.de to raise the musical production standards of Ringtones, as about 250,000 ringtones were found to be of low quality.

For more on ringtones concerts staged around the world, check out this category in Ringonia.com

Ringtone related domain names

Ringtonia's weekly listing of ringtone related domain names that have come up for sale and are available to the public again. Don't miss lord-of-the-ringtones.com, how cool is that? though maybe not entirely legal.

- arabianringtone.net
- barringtoneng.com
- buyaringtone.net
- buypolyphonicringtones.com
- buypolyphonicringtones.net
- euroringtone.com
- fastbeatringtones.com
- freeringtonesnews.com
- latestringtones.net
- lord-of-the-ringtones.com
- my-ericsson-ringtones.com
- my-mobile-ringtones.com
- my-motorola-ringtones.com
- my-nokia-ringtones.net
- my-sagem-ringtones.com
- nokia-ringtones-world.net
- nokia-ringtones-zone.com
- ringtonemelody.com
- ringtoneparadies.com
- ringtoneparadise.net
- ringtones-world.net
- ringtones-zone2.com
- ringtones24.com
- ringtonewilly.com
- rnbringtonez.com
- the-polyphonic-ringtones.com
- urbanringtonez.com

All the above names are available for registration now if anyone is interested. Source of information: Netcollateral.com.

Ringtones for landline phones

German Users with appropriate devices can now order their favourite song as a ring tone for their landline phone at SMS im Festnetz.

And coming soon, a ring tone which will indicate who is calling before the phone is answered.

This service is realised by MATERNA Information & Communications, a leading international provider in the area of Fixed Net SMS, according to Max Kraynov.

What your ringtone says about you

The excerpts (shamelessly) published here, are from the same article mentioned earlier written by Gina Davidson for The Edinburgh Evening News, and one of the most thorough and entertaining ringtone articles I've ever read.

This following chapter is entitlted "What your ringtone says about you".

• The normal ring: you're either playing it safe because you have serious reputation to uphold and can't be caught out with a tune which could be looked upon as unprofessional if your phone goes off during a meeting, or you're extremely uptight and can't bear anyone to know anything about you.

• Grand Valse: The Dom Joly of ringtones - the one that gets everyone's teeth on edge. This is still being played on your phone because you're just too lazy to change it - or worse, don't know how to change it. Same goes for the Mosquito, Samba, or Orient.

• Anything by Mozart, Beethoven or Rossini's William Tell overture. This ringtone is trying to alert people to your instinctive good taste, love of classical music, and highbrow pursuits. Unfortunately with the sound quality of most mobiles, it comes over as tinny and annoying. And remember true intellectuals wouldn't even know how to use a mobile never mind download a tune as their minds are on higher things.

• Themes to Rhubarb and Custard, Dr Who, The Muppets, or Star Wars. You might think these tunes say retro cool, however they're more likely to shout geek, or student.

• Themes to Pulp Fiction, The Italian Job, The Godfather. A real film buff type here - or at least someone who'd like you to think they are. Be prepared for long nights of the soul.

• Anything by Bruce Springsteen. Baby we were born to run - away from whoever has this or any 80s torch songs on their phone. Could be wearing old baseball boots. Eye of the Tiger is possibly even worse: the owner might think it's motivational, any other listener will only be motivated to clear off.

• Animal noises. A real joker here. After all, who else would have thought of something so witty? Just ask why would anyone except a zoologist want to have a monkey mating call on their phone?

• Fly on the Wings of Love by XTM. One of the most recent top ringtone sellers. Most likely to be on the phone belonging to a Chav.

• Beyonce Knowles, Crazy in Love.Well at least you're not alone if this is what rings out as it was the top selling ringtone of the last year - and it's just won her a few Grammy's. Not the most original though.

See also related article posted last June: Your choice of ringtones reveal more about yourself that you might think

So annoying . . but they brring in the money

Gina Davidson writing for the Edinburgh Evening News thinks ringtones are annoying but recognizes that they are BIG business. Her article is one of the most thorough I've ever read, filled with facts and figures. A must read. Excerpts:

Some numbers:

- Last year £65 million worth of singles were sold in the UK, compared to £75m in ringtones for mobile phones - that's up from £40m in 2002. And this year's growth of about 60 per cent is expected to continue in 2004, creating a £100m industry.

- The European ringtone market alone is worth an estimated 1 billionn euros annually and growing.

- If further proof were needed, Woolworths has created a top-10 chart for ringtones, displaying it alongside the singles chart in the hope that customers will buy the single and the ringtone at the same time".

Where to downloade ringtones:

- At one time ringtones could only be downloaded from the internet. Now all you have to do is dial a number advertised in magazines, newspapers or on television and the ringtone is sent to the buyer's handset in the form of a text message at a cost of between £1 and £3.50.

- BT has also made it easier to buy them through its public internet kiosks, which offer more than 4000 ringtones, including some 2000 polyphonic tones, starting at £2 each. Once at a kiosk, consumers can use the touch screen to select, buy and download the items they want. They can pay by inserting cash directly into the machine or with a credit card, text or by calling a premium rate phone number.

Why are they so popular?

- The popularity of ringtones has been further increased by record companies, which now add downloadable ringtones to some of their releases. A few labels have even released the ringtone version of a single before the CD, such as Mandy by Westlife.

- Another reason for increased demand is the fact that the variety of ringtones has increased by about 1000 per cent in the past year. As well as pop, classical, jazz, national anthems, and film and TV theme tunes, there are also animal noises made available by the British Library, courtesy of its vast sound archive, which include colobus monkey calls, a desert cobra attack, loons yodelling and cattle lowing.

- The quality of sound has also vastly improved. Many phones are now polyphonic, capable of playing multiple tracks, rather than a series of single notes. An increasing number have the capacity to play CD-quality "true tones".

Read on to find out about Alexander Amosu's ringtone success story.

Teens buying fewer CDs

Teenagers shrugged their collective shoulders at music CD sales last year, despite the music industry's progress on curtailing piracy, reports Variety.

"According to Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD, overall dollar sales of music CDs declined 8% in 2003 compared to 2002.

NPD vice president Russ Crupnick believes that while the music industry is always quick to blame illegal peer-to-peer music file sharing for its woes, such activity is only a part of the picture. "Another aspect of these sales declines is based on competition we're seeing from alternative entertainment-related spending options for teens, such as cell phones and videogames."

Nokia brings pictures to FM radio

Soon you could be watching pictures as you listen to the FM radio built in to your Nokia handset, according to BBC.

"The Finnish phone maker has come up with a system that lets radio stations interact with their audience via the phone network. Dubbed Visual Radio, it uses sound and images to give listeners a real-time guide to what they are hearing.

The first phone to have the Visual Radio technology built in is the Nokia 7700, which is due to go on sale during the summer. Future Nokia phones that sport an FM radio will also have the Visual Radio system onboard.

Reidar Wasenius, senior project manager at Nokia Multimedia, said the technology could also allow users to instantly buy ringtones of tunes they like or to take part in polls and competitions being run by radio stations".

Ringtone related domain names

Here's this week's selection of ringtone-related domains that dropped last week and are still available for registration:

- idenringtone.com
- idenringtonez.com
- nextelringtonez.com
- nokia-ringtones-logo-games.com
- nokiagames-ringtones-logos.com
- nokiaringtones-logos-games.com
- slikringtones.com
- idenringtones.net
- nextelringtones.net

Source of information NetCollateral.com.

British entrepreneur is 'Lord of the Ring Tones'

The San Mateo County Times has an interesting article on Alexander Amosu, dubbed "Lord of the Ring Tones", who was one of the first to tap into the ring tone trend when he founded R 'n' B Ringtones three years ago.

The article gives insight on the ringtone market in the US vs the rest of the world:

"Everyone's into ring tones here and they have been for a long while -- the ring tone market in the States is probably four years behind us," Amosu estimated.

The research company IDC estimates that Americans shelled out more than $57 million on ring tones in 2003, compared with only $16 million in 2002. Ring tone sales in Japan and Europe totaled about $5 billion in 2003.

Vendors typically charge about 99 cents for monophonic tones to about $2.50 for higher-quality polyphonic versions.

Some analysts believe ring tone sales in Europe have peaked, and that revenues are likely to be cut in half over the next four years.

"It's widely accepted that ring tones have had their day in Europe and possibly in Asia as well," said Paul Skeldon, an analyst at Juniper Research".

Top Ringtones for January 2004

The WSJ keeps track of the top polyphonic ringtones of the month in U.S., courtesy data from Moviso: OutKast, topped ringtone charts two months in a row in January with "Hey Ya!" at No. 1 and new entry "The Way You Move," which leapfrogged 28 spots to No. 4 from December, according to Moviso via Moco News

WB tackles mobile pirates

Warner Bros. is partnering with some of the biggest names in the technology world to help protect digital content on mobile devices, reports Variety.

"Studio is joining with Intel, Nokia, RealNetworks and several other tech firms in the Content License Management Administrator, a new group that will help companies utilize digital rights management technology from the Open Mobile Alliance.

Signing up other studios and labels that own content, as well as media software providers like Microsoft and Apple, will be key as the OMA seeks to gain wide acceptance of its standard."

BlueSkyFrog to Offer True Tones Downunder

Australian mobile content retailer BlueSkyFrog has signed an agreement with Sony Music to provide True Tones, reports Mike Grenville for 160characters.org.

"Although relatively new, Real Tones or Sound Tones, which are samples of real-life sounds that can be downloaded to your mobile phone, are proving popular. BlueSkyFrog offers everything from a baby cry to car horns, glass breaking and pouring water".

Ringtones in Greeting cards

Bayham Systems has unveiled CARDTONES, a solution for greeting card publishers, enabling the incorporation of mobile ringtones inside traditional cards, reports eMediaWire.

"With CARDTONES the ringtone is paid for as part of the purchase price of the card; the recipient can choose from a menu of content displayed inside the card and order an item by sending a text message from their phone".

Prepaid AT&T content card will be sold at 7-Eleven stores

7-Eleven, the largest US convenience store chain, will offer a specialty-content AT&T PrePaid Web card featuring online music from RealNetworks' RealRhapsody service, reports Yahoo News.

"The RealRhapsody card, available at participating 7-Eleven stores for $14.95, will provide consumers with one month of access to RealRhapsody's enormous music library and the ability to build a personal collection of tunes by being able to burn 15 songs".

KaZaa Wireless

Rafat Ali for Moco News reports on a new desktop application from Kazaa. In their own words: "With Kazaa Wireless, you can get direct access to Kazaa anytime, anywhere using any kind of mobile device".

Ringback tones an opportunity for musicians and mobile networks

Two good articles today on ring back tones based on Mobile business and entertainment company Netsize's forecasting:

-- Silicon.com reports that Netsize has forecasted that ring back tones will bring in as much as $1.5bn for European mobile operators and record labels by the end of next year, and predicts penetration of more than 20 per cent among subscribers during the same period.

-- According to Cellular News, after years of missing out on the revenue from mobile ringtones, the music industry is finally looking to cash-in on the latest craze in mobile personalisation - Ring Back Tones (also known as caller tunes).

"Because traditional polyphonic ringtones are synthesised 'covers' of popular hits - many music labels have been unable to capture the vast revenues generated by the ringtone craze. Because Ring Back Tones use the original master recording, the labels are now entitled to earn money on their artists' tracks".

Ringtone related domain names

Ringtonia opens a new weekly chapter listing ringtone related domain names that have come up for sale and are available to the public again.

- nokiaringtonesnlogos.com
- ringtones-cellular.com
- ringtones4ericsson.com
- ringtonesandringtonez.com
- ringtonescellular.com

All the above names are available for registration now if anyone is interested. Source of information: Netcollateral.com.

Digital music revolution changing the tune

2004 will be the year of a new generation of mobile jukeboxes and telephones that will revolutionise how the world listens to music, reports the AP.

"People worldwide will soon be tuning into their favourite songs and compiling albums via their cellphones and video-game consoles, or downloading music onto mobile jukeboxes.

Nokia has even launched what it calls a "visual radio" with colour graphics and a built-in FM transmitter that will display information such as song titles and lyrics of the music it is tuned into. Its 7700 mobile device combines a phone with a touch screen, a video player and an MP3 music player".

Record label runs ring tones around wireless carriers

Walt Disney-owned a Hollywood Records has struck a deal with Xingtone, a digital content provider that delivers ring tones and pictures directly to cell phones without paying wireless carriers a cent, according to News.com.

"Under the deal, Xingtone takes care of online distribution of free ring tones and images of Hollywood Records artists The Polyphonic Spree, Hilary Duff and Josh Kelley, as part of the record label's marketing push to music fans that own cell phones.

Xingtone has become known in the industry for a $15 software application that lets people create ring tones on their PC, then delivers them directly to any cell phone with an Internet connection. Xingtone also works with wireless carriers. It has partnered with about a dozen companies to create online ring tone stores, where the song snippets sell for about a dollar each".