Rapper's New Single Features Ringtone Innovation

This is huge news! Actually Régine blogged it over the weekend. Well, in case you missed it, here it is again.

According to Reuters and contactmusic.com, the new CD single "Baby" from rapper Fabolous allows UK consumers to choose which part of the song they want to use as a mobile phone ringtone, a feature that Warner Music said on Thursday was a first for the industry.

"The Fabolous single from Warner's Atlantic Records, which includes built-in software that lets listeners isolate any part of the song and load it onto their phones, retails for 3.99 pounds ($7.51), the same price as other CD singles."

Are ringtones an extension of your negative side?

While I was away, Ringer News had more fun posts on ringtone personality tests. cf also Your ringtone reveals a lot about your personality and flaws blogged by Régine.

Click here for a tongue-in-cheek spin on the whole thing.

And in answer to the question Are ringtones an extension of your negative side?

"People who constantly change their tone to whatever is currently in the charts may think of themselves as trendy but they are really unreliable characters. Those who opt for classical music are regarded as pretentious, while ageing rockers can be easily identified by their polyphonic - rather than real-tone - versions of classic tracks such as The Who's My Generation and Boston's More Than A Feeling."

Related articles on ringtone profiling:

-- What kind of person sets their phone solely on vibrate mode?

-- What your ringtone says about you

-- Ringtones can reveal more about yourself that you might think

-- Ringtones: The new currency of cool

Chaku Uta Full song download services, hottest app in Japan

In a telephone interview with a research company in Toronto last night, Daniel Scuka of Wireless Watch Japan was asked for examples of the coolest new applications or services in Japan.

"Without a doubt, he answered, mobile music and the Chaku Uta Full song download services are really eating up packet bandwidth.

The week before last, KDDI announced that the cumulative downloads for EZ Chaku Uta Full (provided via the CDMA 1X EV-DO WIN network) had surpassed 3 million as of 1 March 2005, less than four months after the 19 November 2004 launch.

The company added that the 1 million and 2 million milestones were achieved on 5 January and 5 February, respectively.

The Crazy Frog ringtone "would make a great dance record"

As announced in February, the Crazy Frog ringtone will be released as a music single. Drowned in Sound gives the details: "Crazy Frog Axel F" will be out on the 2nd of May and blend the frog's 'vocals' and the theme tune from Beverly Hills Cop.

The single is released by German clubbing outfit Bass Bumpers, comprising Reinhard Raith and Wolfgang Boss.

Reinhard said: "The Crazy Frog ringtone was huge in Germany and I believed it would make a great dance record. It needed a melody, something to get the hands in the air, and Wolfgang suggested the Axel F record which is one of the best 'hands up' tunes ever made."

NEC takes ringtones into three dimensions

PC Pro informs that NEC has introduced the PD9971 melody chip for mobile phones, which offers 3D positioning technology, sound effects, and 128 polyphonic tones to help phone manufacturers deliver high sound quality for applications such as games.

The seven audio functions on the chip include, pitch bend, vibrato, delay, reverb, chorus, compression and Doppler.

The chip is also compatible with the Mobile Extensible Music Format as well as Standard MIDI Files.

Bypassing the radio in Israel

Israelis are getting more and more dependent on their mobile phones, reports Haaretz. Especially the 15-30 age group, hooked on ringtones, ringbacktones and truetones.

"It is an excellent opportunity for us to reach the young audience," says Boaz Ben-Tzion, manager for artists Machina and Eli Yatzpan. "It is a new start for all musicians and for local music. I think the popularity of music on cellphones will inject adrenaline into the industry."

Within a few months, when Machina goes on tour in the US, Cellcom subscribers will be able to see live clips of the concerts. "Anywhere music can be transmitted is good," agrees Haim Slutzky, another music manager.

Anywhere music can be transmitted and make a profit, not like the major problem facing the music world with the file sharing sites. Besides, contracts between artists and phone companies bypass another sore spot - radio stations.

"This move bypasses the playlists and the radio station managers who decide for all the listeners who will be heard and who won't," comments Ben-Tzion. "On the cellphone, each subscriber will decide what he wants to hear and when."

"The term mainstream has been blurred thanks to cellphones," says Haim Shemesh, in charge of the repertoire at NMC Music. "The playlist culture that tries to present a specific type of music - while many consumers want to listen to and be exposed to other music - will find it difficult to maintain control," he says.

NMC has embarked on a joint venture with Shabak Music, which represents a group of artists that transfer musical content to subscribers to Pelephone's youth brand Esc. The group's members will provide Pelephone with a stream of songs, including ones that have not been released on radio.

"Recording companies the world over were not prepared for the big process that swept over the music market in the past decade," says Shemesh, "but the technology exists, and we are happy to join it."

Ron Jeremy launches groantones

Ron Jeremy, the "world's most famous adult entertainment star", has launched RJ Mobile, an adult entertainment site, where he will "recommend his favourite all-time scenes from his and his friends' personal libraries" for users to download.

There'll also be groantones, wallpapers, and text flirting (SMS conversations from a selection of female characters).

Besides, "RJ mobile subscribers will be charged £1.50 for each week that they remain with the service. This charge will allow the downloading of any single piece of content plus a personal photo blogging account. Additional videos, wallpapers, Groantones and text flirts will be charged at £1.50 per item. Forty new, 30-second clips will be available each week."

Via Engadget < Moco News.

Church sells its own ringtones

Ananova reports that St Petri church in Hamburg (Germany) has taken to selling Christian ring tones to fund the restoration of its organ.

For the equivalent of about £1.40p, worshippers can download one of five hymn tunes from the website .

Church musician Thomas Dahl says he is confident the church will succeed in the competiitive ringtone market. "We offer melodies that have been popular for centuries," he said.

Worshippers at St Petri's need to raise nearly £150,000 for the restoration of their church organ.

Your ringtone reveals a lot about your personality and flaws

Your mobile phone ringtone reveals a lot about your personality and flaws, a survey by British company Tesco Mobilehas revealed.

People who constantly change their tone to whatever is currently in the charts are unreliable characters.

Those who opt for classical music are regarded as pretentious, while ageing rockers can be easily identified by their polyphonic versions of classic tracks such as The Who's My Generation and Boston's More Than A Feeling.

If a phone boasts its owner's voice, or their partner or child, it means they are self-obsessed.

Men with rude or animal sounds as their ringtone are immature.

The survey also found 21 per cent of folk think having a standard phone ringtone is "uncool", indicates a lack of daring and fear of technology.

A quarter of phone users admit the first thing they do after buying a new phone is select a ringtone. (via The Daily Record)

Rapper's New Single Features Ringtone Innovation

Until now, the 30-second ringtone clips packaged with singles have been pre-determined by record companies. But the new CD single "Baby" from rapper Fabolous allows UK consumers to choose which part of the song they want to use as a ringtone, writes Reuters.

The single which includes built-in software that lets listeners isolate any part of the song and load it onto their phones, retails for 3.99 pounds ($7.51), the same price as other CD singles.

"It's the next step for music lovers," said Crispin Futrille, whose company Bounce supplied the technology. "Ultimately the idea is to get this included on all CDs."

Nationalist organization in India calls for ban on ringtone

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a nationalist organization in India, has called for a ban on the national anthem ringtone, stating that it is offensive.

"This is an insult to the national anthem and the ringtone should be banned immediately," said a representant of the organization. He added that service providers should strictly be asked to withdraw the ringtone. (via ringernews)

Swisscom mobile to launch Ringback tones

Swisscom Mobile has announced the launch of a ringback tones service for July. They call them "signal d'appel" or "R'nB'".

Link to press release.

Radio broadcaster offers mobile ringtones

Australia's biggest radio broadcaster, Austereo Group Ltd, is offering mobile phone ringtones of top 30 songs as part of a strategy to win audience share, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

The broadcaster said Today FM's Hot 30 Countdown had launched a mobile ringtone service, offering tunes that match its playlist.

"The polyphonic ringtones - compatible with most modern mobile phones - will cost $4 each, which is comparable with the market's lowest prices," Austereo said.

This service, dubbed "podcast", will be released weekly and in the future will offer exclusive content not available on-air including extended celebrity interviews, it said.

Global music sales in 2004

Worldwide sales of recorded music declined 1.3 percent to $33.6 billion last year as the U.S. market grew for the first time since 1999 and consumers bought more concert and video DVDs, according to Reuters.

"The figures released on Tuesday, which showed the fifth successive year of falling sales for the record industry, did not include digital downloads or mobile phone ringtones, which music companies say would have made 2004 sales flat against 2003.

World After The Music Industry

Mobile operators and music labels are currently fighting over the mobile music industry, or specifically which industry should get the lions share of the revenue, reports James Pearce over at MocoNews:

"It's true the operators take an indecent cut of the revenue, but it's nigh on impossible to feel sorry for the music labels, who have been gouging everyone for decades. However, new systems are popping up that allow artists to sell directly to the consumers. One version uses reverse billing via SMS, but rents low-cost short codes to ensure the operators don't gouge the musicians with high fees for the SMS".

Ringtones can help solve crimes

Tom's Hard News interviewed Amber Schroader, a cell phone forensics expert at Paraben, who said: "a distinctive ring-tone is easily remembered by anyone walking by, and could help place suspects at the scenes of crimes". Elementary, my dear Watson.

The "DarlaGasm"

Following a post on orgasm ringtones in Ringtonia a couple of weeks ago, blogger Darla Mack wondered why one would buy orgasm ringtones? Wouldn't it be much more fun making them yourself?. Such a post got quite a bit of feedback as you can imagine and so, by popular request, Darla actually did record her own.

Here is the awaited sound clip, the original DarlaGams.

Ring Tone Revenues to Reach $724 Million

U.S. revenues from mobile phone ringtones (which were $91 million in 2003 and $217 million in 2004) will reach $724 million in 2009, according to JupiterResearch, in a report entitled ""Wireless Market Forecast, 2004 to 2009". [ via company press release via Billboard PostPlay ].

Despite this rapid growth, ring tones and games accounted for just 10% of carriers' non-access data revenue in 2004, partly because ring tone and game capable handsets have not yet achieved very high market penetration.

The iTunes mobile going nowhere

So now we know: the evil people who stopped Motorola releasing the phone with Apple's iTunes software on it were… Apple. By Charles Arthur for netimperative.

That's according to Ron Garriques, head of Motorola's phone division, who told the CeBIT show in Hannover that the California company put the kibosh on the display of a Moto phone able to sync with computers to transfer songs bought from iTunes.

Simply, Apple chief, Steve Jobs, thought that to show it off without being able to sell it was premature."

Related articles:

-- Carriers hold back release of Motorola's iTunes cell phone

-- Motorola Says It Is Working on More iTunes Phones

-- Motorola's New iTunes Phones Announced This Thursday

-- Motorola Previews iTunes Phone

-- iTunes on Motorola phones in January?

-- Apple's rumoured iPhone

-- Apple showing off a cellphone prototype?

Text of P Diddy's Speech: Give Them King-Kong Content

Excerpts of P Diddy's illuminated speech at the CTIA. [via MocoNews]

“[...] Now all of a sudden, it is all about the cellphones…cellphones, cellphones, cellphones. Now I know the party has been going on for some time, and even though I am late, I am right on time. You know the party doesn't usually start before I get there….

So let's take this party to the next level, ‘cause in a minute cellphones are going to let people listen to my music, watch my films, buy my clothes and learn about my politics. Wherever they are, whenever they want.

[...] As far as music business is concerned, where McLuhan made a point, with each movie, record and TV show, and cellphone have a profound effect on the audience. MTV and BET changed the way people looked at music and the role it played in their life…and their lifestyle."

Phone Tags and Tags Rule!

Yesterday, a team from BBC Radio showed how it allowed listeners to "tag" songs using their cell phones - thanks to Phonetags - and they pointed out how this information helps to organize songs in different ways -- suggesting new playlists for DJs, but also helping people find other songs, albums, or shows of interest. [via E-Media Tidbits]

In their own words: With Phonetags you can 'bookmark' any song you hear on BBC 6 Music. Just text X to 64046 when you hear the song. Then rate, tag and share your songs online.

Tags rule!.

Check out yesterday's post in Picturephoning on a word generator, Spell with flickr, that uses tagged photos from flickr

And amaztype where you type in a word and the result will be (clickable) cover art from Amazon.

See also Clive Thompson's post in collision detection on Krazydad's Color Fields Colr Pickr enabling anyone "to point to a particular color on a color-wheel, and the app displays a set of Flickr photos that are all precisely that hue".

Sony BMG releases figures of Music Tones hits

Sony BMG has released some figures on its sales of Music Tones, reports James Pearce for Billboard PostPay:

-- Usher has gone platinum, selling over 1 million Music Tones from the album Confessions

-- Ciara has gone gold, selling over 500K Music Tones from the album Goodies

-- Destiny's Child has also gone gold, selling over 500K Music Tones with their album Fulfilled.

"Part of the attraction of ring tones is their sheer simplicity: People just 'get' ring tones as an inexpensive way to personalize their phone - and make a statement about who they are to others in the process."

Infospace and Corbis Bring Universal's Film Catalog to Mobile Phones

Infospace today announced its partnership with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group, and Corbis, a leading provider of photography, to make iconic Hollywood content available for use in mobile phones. [via Internet Ad Sales]

"This mix of art, technology, and commerce has resulted in the creation of Infospace Mobile's new ScreenTones audio and video ringers for cell phones.

"Everybody has favorite lines and scenes from the movies," said Mark Levy, vice president, content and publishing for Infospace Mobile. "This relationship allows us to deliver those cinematic moments as ScreenTones(TM) to mobile users."

Firefighter Phone has extra loud ringtone

Siemens Communications presents the world's first mobile phone designed specifically for use by firefighters and other emergency service personnel, the M65 Rescue Edition.

This rugged, fire-red mobile phone features a characteristic siren sound as a ringtone so it can be heard even in the noisiest of environments. To ensure that important calls are not missed in emergencies either, LEDs down the side flash on and off like a flashing blue light. [company press release via MMOM ]

Sprint introduces music video ringers

This is a tough one, I don't know if it should be posted in Ringtonia or Picturephoning. Well here goes.

Sprint has now introduced video ringers, becoming the first wireless company in the U.S. to do so. Video ringers are compatible with the Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Phone MM-5600 by Sanyo.

Different callers can be identified with different video ringers, which will cost customers US$3.00 apiece.

[Sprint press release via Geek.com]

Billboard Magazine is going mobile

Through an exclusive partnership with mobile entertainment publisher and distributor mForma, Billboard will make its charts, music news and access to music available to mobile users nationwide via an integrated entertainment application, Billboard Mobile, which launches next month.

The service will provide free access to Billboard charts ranking the top music singles, albums and ringtones, and will allow users to navigate by music genre, artist or chart category. Paid subscribers may then unlock additional Billboard content such as artist information, headlines, feature articles, photos, music reviews, song information, games/trivia and artist information. [via Billboard]

Buying a ''ring tone" by snapping and sending a picture of a compact disc cover

Mobot Inc., a Lexington start-up, plans to unveil next week technology that would let phone owners buy a ''ring tone" by snapping and sending a picture of a compact disc cover. [via The Boston Globe]

Mobot Inc., is a Lexington start-up whose known for it's technology enabling cameraphone users to respond to magazine ads and special offers.

Last year, Jane magazine began publishing Mobot-enhanced advertisements.

Star Wars Ringtones and Soundtones

Cingular Wireless plans to offer exclusive mobile content based on the upcoming film, "Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith," and past installments of the Star Wars series, reports CBS News.

"The lineup will feature 100 ringtones, including dialogue, the voice of C-3PO and the sound of a "TIE" fighter aircraft".

Street Musician Ringtones

For people who want to make a living of live and spontaneous music on the streets, the Busker Ringtones project, by Tamsin Fulton, offers street musicians a new revenue stream but gives also the public the possibility to get unique ringtones for their mobile phones. The ringtones would normally cost £1,50: with 75p going to the musician and the rest to the requester's mobile phone network.

Text "Busk Frank" to 80010 for sounds from Cumbria and "Busk Jeanne" to 80010 for sounds from London.

Click here for London Buskers.

reBlogged from near near future

Create your own ringtone

This sounds really simple. A company called Blue Frog Mobile is enabling cell phone users to turn their voice into their very own ringtone.

"Whether it's your pet barking or meowing, your children singing their favorite song, or a special message from a loved one, you can create your own customized ringtone.

You simply call 206-678-RING (7464), record a message, and send it to your cell phone.

Right now, Cingular/ATT Wireless and T-Mobile customers can use the system, and more carriers will be added soon." [company press release]

Related:

-- Bleep.com launches a new tool for the creation of custom real music ring-tones

-- Tooki Ringtones - turn your humming into a ringtone

-- Magix allows users to create their own ringtones from existing music files.

-- SSEYO miniMIXA allows amateur DJs to create mixes with their cellphones