March 1, 2005
Ringtones being replaced by real music
The ringtone and cell phone music market is sometimes hard to understand and is well, mostly confusing. But here's a very good article by Canadian Canoe, summarizing how this business is evolving - with insight on why Canada has lagged behind so far.
"Ringtones and polyphonics are on the endangered-species list. In Europe and Asia for the past two years, and more recently in the U.S., the hot handset craze has been "truetones" -- clips of actual artists' recordings that play when you get a call.
[...] The stake that the record labels have in the ringtone boom is obvious. An industry that has been getting beaten up by free music downloading is looking to another digital mode as its salvation. As long as ringtones were merely beepy cover-versions, only songwriters stood to collect any royalties.
"Now artists, labels, producers ... all the people who normally get paid when things are sampled (on hip-hop songs) will now receive payment for ringtones," says Universal Music senior executive Erika Savage.
"What's very interesting is how certain songs catalogued have a brand new life when they come out as a Mastertone," Savage says. "Like Celebration by Kool &The Gang. That's a song we've seen have a brand new life in the U.S. and Europe as a ringtone, even though that band might not be selling CDs anymore. It really is a singles market.
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