Régine is taking over

Off to the US for 10 days. Régine from we-make-money-not-art will be taking over. So watch this space for great things!

Probe launched into "Crazy Frog" sales tactics

The regulator that oversees premium-rate phone services is launching a probe over the wildly popular "Crazy Frog" mobile phone ringtone, after complaints that it dupes children into signing up for an expensive subscription plan, reports Reuters.

The regulator has the power to levy fines of up to 100,000 pounds and shut down services that do not comply with its guidelines. Crazy Frog may also face additional restrictions if it is found to be targeting children under the age of 16.

Related: - That Crazy Frog: The Dark Side

Purina boosting brand loyalty with Podcasts and Ringtones

The marketing strategy, rolled out in the past week, makes Nestlé Purina the latest among a handful of companies in the U.S. to try to market their brands by taking advantage of the increasing popularity of portable gadgets such as cellphones, iPods and BlackBerrys, reports the WSJ.

Consumers choose to receive the information by signing up on Purina's Web site, purina.com The aim is to build brand loyalty, not hound customers to purchase pet food. The services offered are:

-- Purina's podcasts -- sound files that listeners can download onto a portable music player such as an iPod -- will offer pet owners advice ranging from animal training to pet insurance.

-- Weekly tips sent to mobile devices will provide similar information, such as how a dog or cat can shed a few pounds.

-- Ringtones for cellphones. A selection of up to 5 ringtones including a meowing cat a barking dog as well as the Friskies "Feelin' Alright" jingle.

Purina is one of the first consumer packaged-goods companies in the U.S. to offer podcasting and wireless messages.

Maria Sharapova 'Scream ringtone

The Voice of Reason has dug up a ringtone of Maria Sharapova's scream.

You can hear or download a windows version.

More here: - Tennis action soundtones by women tennis stars.

That Crazy Frog: The Dark Side

He's back! for the second time today, but from the dark side.

"While ringtone-maker Jamster! and its telephone service provider mBox made an estimated £10m from the craze by January alone, thousands of customers may have lost out, reports the BBC.

ICSTIS, the watchdog for premium rate services, is investigating mBlox after receiving 110 complaints from the public about the Jamster Crazy Frog service.

Ms Bell said the watchdog was also investigating whether Crazy Frog products had been inappropriately aimed at children, particularly because of their use of dancing cartoon characters.

Tones from the Crazy Frog character have been heavily promoted in prime-time television adverts".

It is my voice on poll tape (and ringtone), admits embattled Arroyo

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the President of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo, has admitted it is her voice on the controversial election tape - which has been turned into a ringtone and a car horn -, but insisted she did not sway the result of last year's presidential election.

"In a televised address to the nation last night, Dr Arroyo apologised for a "lapse in judgement".

"I was anxious to protect my votes and during that time had conversations with many people, including a Comelec [Commission on Elections] official. My intent was not to influence the outcome of the election and it did not."

Her comments broke a silence she had maintained on the scandal for three weeks and signal a belated recognition that the accusations will not go away.

The country is transfixed by the scandal. In parliament, in the press, at street markets and in coffee houses people are following the case closely".

A mobile phone ringtone featuring the words “Hello Garci” taken from a recording at the centre of allegations Arroyo tried to fix the result of last year's election has been downloaded by thousands.

Previous related posts:

-- From ring tones to car horns? Only in the Philippines

-- Filipinos clamour for scandalous mobile ringtone

-- Ringtones express widespread disgust over (Ms Arroyo's) obvious poll fraud

-- Wiretapped Voice Latest Ringtone Craze

Read also Politics and the new media -- The Philippines was the first country in the world to use text messaging to topple a former president. (And now they may soon be the first country to overturn a government with a ringtone (and car horn!)

Crazy Frog hops off the number one spot

That annoying Crazy Frog has finally been knocked off the number one spot after four weeks at the top.

"Moving down to the number two spot, the frog has given way to allow 2Pac and Elton John to go straight in at number one with Ghetto Gospel, by rapper 2PAC, who died in Las Vegas in 1996, killed by unknown assailants.

[via ITV.com]

I'm not sure what this says about the music industry. First a Frog Ringtone is on top of the charts for 4 weeks straight, only to lose it's place to a dead rapper's single (?).

To understand, read MTV: Presley and 2Pac have become legendary in their respective genres, inspiring conferences and tributes — and enthralling fans with their music years after their deaths. Other rappers,have also had material released posthumously, but none of it has enjoyed the critical and commercial success of Tupac's (2Pac') posthumous releases.

'Bites Off the Apple' - Study

As more mobile companies add digital music downloading to their handsets, sales of iPods and other MP3 players will slow, according to an influential US newspaper, reports Netimperative.

"A report by the Barron's newspaper in the US said that by 2006, many new handsets will carry software and data storage for portable music, allowing users to download songs both from PCs and wireless music services owned by network operators or other companies.

"While optimists think Apple could sell 45 million iPods next year, mobile-phone makers will be selling more than 750 million handsets," wrote Bill Alpert in the report entitled 'Bites Off the Apple'.

"All those handsets could weigh on the iPod's growth prospects -- and Apple's premium stock valuation. Cellphone users won't need to lug around a second gadget to have their music."

The report added that Apple's marketshare of the digital music business could shrink from 90% to just a few percent.

Apple's dominance with the iPod will dwindle slowly however, as mobile phones will not have for some time the capacity to store as many songs as an iPod.

Furthermore, it will be some time before 3G networks will replace current networks in the US, the iPod's core market.

Barron's said that while some analysts think Apple may sell 45 million iPods next year, this contrasts with the 750 million or more mobile phone handsets predicted to sell next year globally.

At the end of the quarter ending 26th March, Apple sold 5.31 million iPods, accounting for roughly one-third of the company's revenue."

Summer Festivals Get Hypertags

Nokia, O2, & Vodafone are using Hypertag to distribute mobile content at UK Festivals this summer, reports 160characters.org.

"The Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London this week will be the venue for both O2 and Nokia using Hypertag. To enhance their sponsorship of the event O2 is taking wearable Hypertags into the crowds to offer free ringtones and encourage people to visit the O2 bubbles where O2 customers can receive more content and exclusive services.

Hypertage uses the Infra-Red (IR) port to beam content directly to their phone handsets and PDAs.

O2 is also offering O2 customers the chance to watch some of the bands from the side of the main stage. by texting STAGE and the name of the band to 60600 (e.g. STAGE moby).

Vodafone meanwhile are promoting their 3G service in Ireland with money off vouchers. Wearable Hypertags will be used to give ˆ100 vouchers which people can redeem in store when upgrading to a new 3G handset".

Crazy Frog Gossip - Daily Dose

More buzz on that Crazy Frog...

Contact Music reports that Eighties rock legends QUEEN have launched a stinging attack on anthemic rockers COLDPLAY - claiming all their songs sound the same.

Apparently QUEEN drummer Roger Taylor, favours the frog over COLDPLAY's offering. "I actually prefer it to the Coldplay record," and adds, "everything they do sounds too similar."

On ringtones, What melody did you pick?

The SFGate has gathered some uh, interesting insight on some of the ringtones their readers have downloaded and why.

Some favorite answers:

-- From Lina La, Oakland - "I selected one where a horse constantly neighs. I just thought it was unique. It's also a cool way to freak people out".

-- From Mike Gaynes, Moss Beach - I have Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King." It's gloomy music that nicely captures the sense of foreboding I get whenever my cell phone rings, because the incoming call generally turns out to be a pain in the rump.

'silent disco'

Not related to ringtones, just music. An interesting option to keep parties going on into the night and getting around noise curfews.

At Britain's famed Glastonbury music festival this weekend, festivalgoers can take part in a "silent disco", reports Associated Press.

"The music, instead of being pumped out through stacks of speakers, will be streamed to the audience through personal sets of wireless headphones, and it'll look like the dancers are jumping around to a nonexistent beat.

The wireless headphones work by having partygoers tune into a restricted radio frequency through which the music of the disc jockey or band is broadcast.

To make things more bewildering for onlookers, those participating in the Glastonbury silent disco will have a choice of tuning their headphones to two different frequencies and picking a performer of their choice.

It could make for a scenario where some in the festival's dance area are listening to one kind of music and others to something entirely different".

Ringtones make sweet music for record label

This Reuters story has been picked up by most newspapers, but Moco News sums it up best:

Now that phones are playing master tones (actual song snippets), ringtones are becoming big business for record labels, which were excluded from profiting from monophonic and polyphonic ringtones.

“While polyphonics and monophonics only provide royalties for songwriters and song publishers, the new forms generate payments for record companies and recording artists as well. Some see even more ambitious commercial use of mobile phones in the future…

Sony BMG already makes as much money from ringtones as it does from computer-based digital downloads, and ringtone revenues at rival EMI Group only slightly trail those from song downloads…

The performing-rights organization ASCAP, which collects royalties for songwriters and song publishers, says the $5 million it will collect from ringtones this year already matches revenue from Internet radio, online greeting cards and other “new media” combined“.

Juke Bot Robot

If you are looking for industrial-grade techno music for your next party event, look no further than the Kuka Robotics-based Juke Bot, a five foot tall (unextended) mixmaster.

The Juke Bot is a pair of Kuka industrial robots; each is surrounded by a set of platters (you know, vinyl LPs). The two bots act independently, deftly grasping an LP, and then bringing it to a platform with a phonograph needle. Delicately, the robot presses the LP against the needle and begins to rotate it forward and backward, creating a unique performance sound.

[via Technovelgy.com]

Cingular considering iTunes phone (?)

This is going to reverberate all over the industry over the weekend: Cingular, the No. 1 U.S. mobile service, is considering selling the much-hyped Motorola-iTunes phone/service, reports Reuters via Moco News.

"Motorola and Apple have been talking to Cingular about it using the iTunes phone," according to one of the sources, who asked not to be named.

Apple and Motorola said last summer they were working on bringing the popular iTunes service to mobile phones but Motorola has delayed unveiling its iTunes device so far amid analyst speculation about a lack of interest from operators.

Music and wireless companies are betting that mobile phones equipped with digital music players will be a key source of growth in the next few years. Music providers see phones as a new distribution channel and phone makers believe that music player features will boost cellphone sales."

Related articles:

-- Motorola Exec Confirms iTunes Phone is Coming

-- Verizon and Sprint say no to the iTunes phone

-- The iTunes mobile going nowhere

-- 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?

RudeTones

Business Week reports on the less refined spectrum of the ringtone business, where bodily functions (vomiting, burping, farting) are popular and where sounds that jar your nerves (police siren, car revving up) are hot.

To capitalize on this niche trend which appeals mostly to teenagers, Bonus Mobile has launched a dedicated service, available to subscribers of T-Mobile and Cingular at rudetones.com.

Related:

-- Puke Ringtones - there is such a thing

-- "pedorap" - A rapper's version of the fart ringtone

-- Whoopie-Cushion Ring Tones Big Biz

Sheep take on Crazy Frog

The ringtone industry will never get over that Crazy Frog, and since imitation is the best form of flattery, a UK tourist board has come up with their own sheepish version.

The BBC reports that a selection of sheep bleating shave been added to a remix of the William Blake classic, Jerusalem, to create a ringtone.

"And just as the Crazy Frog craze appealed to the young and urban, it is hoped the Baarmy Sheep will appeal to those with a love of the countryside.

The ringtone can be downloaded to phones with MP3 capability or real music players from Cumbria Tourist Board's website.

Dont miss playing the Baarmy Sheep movie

"The recordings were made by Charley Darbishire, 27, who runs a recording studio in Ulverston.

Mr Darbishire added: "Unlike some famous musicians, sheep are easy to work with and don't mind doing re-takes."

Ridetones: customized sounds for your car

Following Ringtonia's post on a political sound clip that has been turned into a car horn in the Philippines, I received the most interesting e-mail from one of my readers, David Klein, about Ride Tones, a product which gives usable control over customized sounds for your car, allowing you to make your car an extension of your personality, your wardrobe, your lifestyle, and your taste - and surely, more royalties for music companies!

"Ridetones is an automotive customization product that brings MP3 quality song clips, sounds and sound effects to the car for various functions such as the car's alarm or remote keyless entry system to unlock or lock the vehicle or to open the trunk.

The Ridetones device comes with a speaker and software and is easily installed under the dashboard. You go to the Ridetones website to select the music or sounds you want, or create your own sounds, and then transfer them to the device via several options including wirelessly, using your mobile phone or PDA, or directly to the device through the computer's USB port. How cool is that?

Orange expands mobile music services

Mobile network operator Orange has expanded its mobile music services in a bid to capitalise on the summer festival season, reports Netimperative.

"Orange has launched an upgraded version of its Music Player service, along with new services Fireplayer Online and Calling Tunes.

Music Player now supports higher quality AAC+ MPEG-4 tracks and includes new ‘Tell A Friend' and ‘Skip A Track' features. Also, a new text search function enables users to find music on their phone by artist and track name.

Meanwhile, Fireplayer Online is an Internet based version of Orange's Fireplayer ringtone remixing service. Customers can produce their own personalised ringtones on any True Tone enabled handset, by remixing original music tracks online before sending them from a PC to their phone".

In addition, Calling Tunes enables users to personalise the calling experience other people have when calling them.

Intelligent Ringtones on the Way?

Doree Duncan Seligmann of Avaya, in a panel at Supernova 2005, says the communications network company is looking at an interesting idea: intelligent ringtones.

They needn't merely serve as a way to tell someone's calling, or as a fashion statement. Ringtones, she says, could also announce who's calling and even let you know that the person has tried to call you three times already. Assuming you care, that is. [via Business Week's Tech Beat]

Hip-hop artist Bizarre releases debut album on mobile handset memory card

UK record label Sanctuary Records today announced the simultaneous release of an album on CD, as a digital download and on memory cards for mobile phone play, reports DMeurope.

"The album, Hannicap Circus is the debut solo album from hip-hop artist Bizarre, produced by Eminem.

The memory cards, powered by patent-pending ROK Player Technology, include 19 audio tracks as well as the music video for the single ‘Rockstar' which play full-screen on multimedia handsets.

The memory cards are available online at the ROK Player site and at selected phone shops in the UK".

Mobile Music Royalty Explained

In response to a recent post on the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada lobbying for increased royalties, MocoNews. recieved an email explaining who royalties are paid to in regards to ringtones and why, and the fact that it varies country to country.

The author, Andrew Sheehy — Research Director at Generator Solutions — emphasised it was about the ringtone market in general and not Canada in particular. Read here.

... So, in response to James Pearce incredulous question “Are they seriously suggesting that when a ringtone is played because someone called a mobile phone it constitutes a “public performance”?” the answer in some countries is “yes”.

Sale Away

Sale Away, passers-by can conduct an "orchestra" of household devices via their mobile phones on a display window.

The mechanical orchestra consists of flute, organ and brass playing vacuum cleaners, rattling kitchen mixers, buzzing ventilators, radio playing toy trains, wobbling jigsaws, dancing tumble dryers, humming refrigerators and other misused household utilities.

The conductor is a big refrigerator. This fridge is also the explanatory interface. To start the orchestra and wake up the shopping windows you have to dial the number and follow the commands displayed on the window. This call opens the door of the fridge, giving free the image of its explanatory interface, the "mobile phone robot person". The robot will explain and invite you to act. By pressing keys on the phone you can let all different instruments play along with the melody. You can set some single voices or the whole orchestra tutti.

reBlogged from networked performance

Dial R for Radio on Your Cell

Scores of companies are betting that delivering audio content of all kinds to handsets could be as big a camera phones and ringtones, according to Business Week.

A good story on radio on mobiles, though it confuses a bit among all the approaches being tried out in the market... it covers Motorola's iRadio trials, Nokia's Visual Radio, Crown Castle's DVB-H approach, Sirius' recent deal with Sprint, Mercora's P2P streaming, Sprint's Mspot effort and Qualcomm's MediaFlow effort…

Cell-phone radio should generate a little over $70 million in sales in 2005, estimates market researcher IDC.

[via Moco News]

From ring tones to car horns? Only in the Philippines

From ring tones to car horns? Only in the Philippines.

The "Hello! Hello! Garci" sound clip is now a car horn and the Department of Justice (DoJ) can't do anything but blame it on Filipino culture.

"It does not speak well of our culture. What we do is make something ugly, uglier," said Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez upon learning that the audio of the President allegedly talking with an election official is now trumpeted by some cars in Metro Manila.

"If you feel for your country, even if it is not beautiful, you do not make it ugly," he said in reply to a question on whether all these CDs, text jokes and ring tones on the GMA tapes are making a mockery of the administration.

"It's part of destabilization," Gonzalez said of those giving away free CDs of the audio tape.

While Ms Arroyo struggles with a record-low popularity, a simple two-word greeting attributed to her has shot to the top of the charts in this cell phone-mad country.

'Hello Garci' overload.

A website offering a mobile phone ring tone featuring the words "Hello Garci" briefly crashed late last week as thousands of Filipinos clamored to download it.

Previous related posts:

-- Filipinos clamour for scandalous mobile ringtone

-- Ringtones express widespread disgust over (Ms Arroyo's) obvious poll fraud

-- Wiretapped Voice Latest Ringtone Craze

Fourth week at top for Crazy Frog

The Crazy Frog ringtone has held onto the singles chart top spot for the fourth week, reports the BBC.

"The new version of Axel F - the theme to the Beverly Hills Cop films - is the first mobile ringtone to make it into the charts.

Meanwhile, Coldplay have hung on to the number one position in the album charts for a second week with X&Y."

Watch clips of the chart-topping Crazy Frog video.

Ringtones and Music for your home phone

Here's a twist, ringtones and music for your home phone. From favorite Red Ferret.

Jingle Ring allows you to replace the sound of that annoying phone ring. Its new microchip technology lets you choose one of eight exciting pre-recorded jingles: Beethoven, Country Western... or create your own!

You can also record your voice or favorite music".

SK Telecom launches ‘Ment Bell' service

SK Telecom, the nation's dominant mobile carrier, is launching a new service called ‘Ment Bell', which provides a voice messaging option with background music. [via Telecoms Korea]

Users compose a 50 letter message and select the background music of their choice. The message is then converted into a voice message and can also be downloaded as a ring tone.

Composers will ask for tax on ringtones

As downloading ringtones for cellphones becomes a habit for more and more people, pushing revenues for the sounds higher and higher, composers are demanding a slice of the pie, according to The London Free Press.

"On Tuesday the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) will present its case for a tax on ringtones before the federal Copyright Board.

The group is arguing that those who create music should be able to reap any benefits that come from new uses of the songs.

"It's a brand new use of music," said Paul Spurgeon, counsel for SOCAN. "As a result it requires a payment for that use."

If accepted, the tariff would cover everything "from bleeps and blips to the actual MP3 of a song," he said.

SOCAN wants to collect 10 per cent of the revenue from ringtones with a minimum fee of 20 cents each.

It's also seeking a 15 per cent tariff on ringbacks -- the sound a caller hears while waiting for someone to answer their phone. "

Filipinos clamour for scandalous mobile ringtone

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo may be struggling with record-low popularity, but a simple two-word greeting attributed to her has shot to the top of the charts in the cellphone-mad country, reports The Khaleej Times.

"A Web site offering a mobile phone ringtone featuring the words “Hello Garci” briefly crashed late last week as thousands of Filipinos clamoured to download it.

Text message consumer rights group TXTpower said its site (www.txtpower.org) had been overwhelmed by demand for the clip taken from a recording at the centre of allegations Arroyo tried to fix the result of last year's election.

Banague said the site had received more than 72,000 hits since Friday, when it started offering the ringtone. It was still recording about 170 downloads an hour.

The country's 37 million mobile users, more than a third of the population, send an average of seven messages every day.

Opponents of Arroyo's predecessor, former movie star Joseph Estrada, famously used text messaging to help organise a ”People Power” revolt that drove him from office in 2001.

Related:

-- Ringtones express widespread disgust over (Ms Arroyo's) obvious poll fraud

-- Wiretapped Voice Latest Ringtone Craze