April 15, 2005
Ringtones: Music To Music Moguls' Ears
For music executives still stung by Internet piracy and slammed for not moving quickly enough to exploit the Net, the industry is going to great lengths not to blow it with new wireless technologies. Business Week reports, in a must-read article.
"They're seeing that cell phones are just as important as CD and MP3 players, radio, and music videos.
And ensuring that breakout artists like 50 Cent have content tailored for mobile phones is now a must, not just for the sake of promotion but as a critical new source of revenue.
Cell phones now represent enough promise for all the major music companies to be setting up mobile-business divisions. "With 180 million handsets in the U.S., how could we not be bullish on the mobile market, especially now that downloads to phones are possible?" says Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business at Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
Ringtones are driving most of the mobile-music business today. [...]
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