Explosive growth for concerts

Concert sales exploded in 2006, reports The Boston Globe.

"... While the remarkable rebound in the concert industry in 2006 came as a surprise to many, the rapid growth in downloading was expected -- part and parcel of music's swift-moving transition from physical product to digital delivery.

Our computers -- home to blogs, social networking sites, and file-sharing opportunities -- were also the foundation of a burgeoning grass-roots movement in music. This virtual community flexed its formidable muscle this year by anointing its own music heroes.

Elsewhere in the technology revolution, cellphones were at the cutting edge as the hot new platform for selling and distributing music. All the major wireless companies launched either a la carte music services or subscription services that let users download full tracks right to their phones. The steep price -- $2 to $2.50 per track -- hasn't stopped Sprint customers from downloading more than 9 million songs so far."

Verizon Customers get a Free Ringtone on New Year's Eve

According to a Verizon Wireless press representative that contacted Mobileburn, "Verizon Wireless customers will be able to get a free ringtone download from the company on New Years Eve."

Verizon customers simply need to text the word "Tone" to the number 2007 with their phone and they will receive instructions as to how they can download a free ringtone of their choosing."

[via Mobileburn]

New Movie "The Messengers" includes ringing only teens can hear

To promote the upcoming supernatural thriller "The Messengers," Sony Pictures has included in its dossier of digital-marketing tools a ringtone only young consumers can hear, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"The ultrasonic ringtone -- ringtones that are audible to teenagers but not adults -- are a featured aspect of the film's promotional campaign, which is geared toward a teen audience.

The ringtone itself, which can be purchased for $2.49 at sony.com/TheMessengers, was created specifically for the film.

Adult-proof ringtones first got attention in the form of "Teen Buzz or Mosquitotone" a popular ring tone adapted from a sonar-based security system used in Europe, Compound Security Systems Ltd, to keep teenagers from loitering at retail outlets."

Guest Bloggers on textually

I'm taking a break over the holidays but two wonderful bloggers will be filling in for me: Gerrit Visser from Smart Mobs and Nuno Bastei from 21talks.net.

Ringback Tone Market Challenges (Part I)

After a tremendous success in Asian markets, Ringback Tones are starting to have wide availability in other regions of the world, such as Europe and North America. The ringback tones market is also driven by the disposable incomes rising in China, India and Indonesia. Overall, today, most operators already have a ringback tones service and main mobile industry’s analysts are forecasting that ringback tones global demand will continue to increase in the coming 5 years. [via Xellular Identity]

... "Taking a look at the ringback tones users, there is relatively low consumer awareness to the ringback tones service, partly because there is no ringback tone generic brand. Many subscribers forget to re-purchase content and need to be constantly reminded about their ringback tones since they never hear it. ... Unlike the ringtones market, content providers are not “incentivised” to push ringback tones."

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Perry Como's Jngle Bells tops Billboards' ringtones chart

Perry Como has nabbed the top two spots on Billboard's cell phone ringtones chart with two of the most popular seasonal choices: "Jngle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," reports the Desert News.

"Jingle Bells," which Como recorded in 1946, has been a part of pop culture for 60 years. Como, who died in 2001 at age 88, never experienced the ringtone phenomenon. "

Ringtones/Mastertones Could Mean Millions for Artists and Labels

According to reports
Informa Telecoms and Media are projecting a $6.8 billion mastertone business by 2010, which could possibly mean happier labels gaining more profits. MemphisRap.com reports.

"Currently, Justin Timberlake is one the top mastertones (also known as ringtones, true tones, realtones, or ringtunes) for 2006 ranking in at number 2 for Sexyback selling more than 1,130,000 and number 6 for My Love with over 780,000 sold.

It's stated that BMI, known for collecting royalties for members of their organization that are songwriters, composers and music publishers like ASCAP is projecting revenues to surpass $600 million in 2006 for U.S ringtones which is $100 million more than last year.

London based ARC Group reports have been noted as stating that in the past year sales have grew more than 40% and have accounted for more than 10% of the music market ($3.5 billion) globally. The group is forecasting a growth in sales to exceed $5.2 billion which will carry on into 2008."

New product plaement: Indian ctors on TB soaps answer ringtone calls

A cellular provider is including ringtones - as placement ads - in India's TV soap opera's. The Business Standard reports.

"In the Balaji Telefilm family dramas the actors will now answer calls ringing to the Idea ringtone.

This is not restricted to one show or a day, but its spread across five soaps during prime time from Monday to Thursday. Star has integrated the Idea ringtone for 50- 90 seconds for four days in a week within shows aired between the prime slot of 8:30 to 11:00pm.

“It is a subtle manner of in-programme branding. We want to be present in the consumers life space and ensure that it reminds people of Idea,” said Pradeep Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, Idea Cellular.

“We’ve planned the Idea ringtone to be placed in the serials wherein its a natural fit. The positioning will be very dramatical. For instance, when a character is awaiting a call which is a turning point in the serial. It will ring long enough for the ringtone to register among the audience. However, it isn’t that everytime the cell phone rings it will ring to the Idea ringtone,” said Paritosh Joshi, president ad sales & distribution, Star India. He further added that ad spots of Idea will also be aired in tandem."

SK Telecom Fined For Incompatible MP3 Playing Phone

Mobile South Korean telco SK Telecom fhas been fined for crippling their music download service to only allow songs downloaded from the company's own music store to work on their phones. TechDirt reports.

"The article implies that the phone itself was set up with special DRM that would only play the MP3s from the service, and not other MP3s."

Gobble Gobble ringtone a huge sucess

Turns out the free gobble gobble ringtoness offered by UK's Turkeys website, to boost sales of Christmas turkeys, has been a huge success - as did the competition to win a family stay on a farm – which generated more than 5500 entries, according to Farmers Weekly Interactive.

Endangered wildlife ringtones

The endangered species advocates at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity are offering ringtones of the croaks, chirps and songs of dozens of rare and endangered animals from around the world.

"Featured are the authentic sounds of some of the world’s most threatened owls, tropical birds, frogs, toads and marine mammals.

The free ringtones are easily downloaded from the Center’s Web site at Rare EarthTones.

Related:

-- The website of the Animal Voices at the Museum of Natural Science/Berlin

-- World's oldest conservation group and offers wildlife ringtones

-- More on animal noises made in the wild from The British Library

-- "Gorilla beating its chest" ringtone, courtesy of The British Library

Chinese phone comes with Karaoke feature

The Asus Z801, a Chinese cell phone, comes with a Karaoke feature.

Speak the lyrics to a song as it plays, and the Z801will not only record them, it'll interpret what you say and display the words back to you as you play your tune, letting you sing along in perfect harmony.

[Mobile Mentalism via Phone Daily ]

MySpace Mobile Music for bands to create ringtones.

As reported all over the Web, Cingular Wireless has made a deal with MySpace that will allow MySpace users to access their profiles through Cingular phones. Under the agreement, cell phone users will be able to go to their MySpace pages to edit them, post photos and get messages, reports NBC

"But the deal also expands Cingular's work with MySpace.com, which includes letting bands use a service called MySpace Mobile Music to create ringtones.

The Boston Typewriter Orchestra

There's no way I can connect this one to ringtones, unless someone wanted to make a ringtone of it. Just file under fun.

There is such a thing as the Boston Typewriter Orchestra (BTO). It's "a collective endeavor which engages in rhythmic typewriter manipulation combined with elements of performance, comedy and satire". They even have CDs, concerts, and television appearances behind them.

BTO aims to entertain the masses while providing a creative outlet for the creative urges of its members.

[via Neatorama]

A new symphony is music to gamers' ears

There have been several ringtone concerts performed around the world, so why not a video gaming symphony? Well it's happening. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, a "symphony" comprising music from some of the most popular video games will be performed in Sydney next year after sell-out shows in the US and Europe.

"The Sydney Symphony will perform Play!, the "video game symphony", at the Sydney Opera House from June 20 next year, under conductor and Grammy award winner Arnie Roth.

It includes music from about 20 games such as Final Fantasy, Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, The Legend Of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., World Of Warcraft, Lost Odyssey and Sonic The Hedgehog.

As well as a full orchestra, choir and pipe organ, the show will also feature highlight clips from the video games, which will be played on large screens above the orchestra."

Crazy Frog ringtone requested at funeral

At one UK funeral service, the dearly departed went to meet his maker to the accompaniment of the Crazy Frog ringtone. Just one of the bizarre choices, in a round-up by The Sunday Mail, of music requested by grieving families.

This is the first for a funeral to the best of my knowledge. Once though (in 2003), as the organ player didn't make it to a wedding on time, the bride walked down the aisle to the ringtone, "Here comes the Bride" played from one of the guests' mobile phones'.

Music on the move as mobile applications multiply

This past year marked the beginning of a revolutionary experiment to sell and distribute digital music to and from mobile phones, writes Reuters. The stage is only just being set, with the business models, pricing and marketing issues still evolving.

"Aiming to raise the volume of the mobile-music message, wireless operators are creating a broad range of music-related services in an attempt to recast the mobile phone as an entertainment hub. Here are just a few of the music-related services and applications that gained prominence during 2006:"

Streaming radio - Sirius and XM Satellite Radio stations now stream multiple channels over wireless networks

Streaming concerts Wireless operators have sponsored and hosted live performances

Concert tickets - Trials are under way that let fans buy their tickets via the mobile phone and receive a unique bar code sent to the phone's screen that can be scanned like a paper ticket

Lifestyle Portals - lifestyle icons like Kevin Lyman and Tony Hawk are creating their own mobile-content portals focused solely on content of interest to their core audience - bypassing wireless operators.

MocaGoGo, an iPod killer application

MocaGoGo is an iPod killer application and a mobile service which enables users to discover, subscribe and exchange user-generated online media.

Through subscription to user-generated content, a user can automatically download media files from other mobile phones by using peer-to-peer technology. Users can search, browse and tag casting feeds directly on mobile devices. There are groups for the users, who can rate, comment and discuss within groups.

This project, by Min Weng, will be shown at the ITP WInter Show, a two day exhibition of interactive sight, sound and physical objects from student artists of ITP to be held December 17 and 18 in New York City.

Memorable Music Makes Us Want To Pick Up The Phone

If a piece of music reminds you of a place and time and makes you want to connect with someone, you're not alone. In a recent international survey conducted by Nokia, there is a distinct relationship between people and the music they hear. Cellular News reports.

"Throughout history, it has been believed that music evokes emotions, feelings and memories," said Jo Harlow, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Mobile Phones, Nokia.

"The survey results formed the foundation for Nokia's "Music Gets You Talking" advertising campaign. ... The survey showed that globally, people were most likely to call a friend if they heard a song that brought back memories. "

On Nayio.com "humming search", if you can hum it, you can find it.

Taking music recognition technology one step further, Nayio.com has announced the launch of the first melody-based humming search, through a parnership with Napster.

"if you can hum it, you can find it."

Through a strategic partnership with Napster the digital music pioneer, the service cross-references the hummed melody with Napster’s massive library of more than three million songs and delivers a list of potential matches."

... Humming search is based on muGene, which extracts the melody and tempo of any given song. It is also the basis for providing visual displays of pitch and synchronized lyrics, as well as the pitch evaluation system that is used to score the user’s pitch accuracy. (The ability to sing in tune is a caveat for the accuracy of humming search results.)

Rabbit hat for musical enjoyment

A fun project by Tal Drori spotted on we-make-money-not-art.com, the Coniglio Hat ("rabbit hat" in Italian):

When the ears are pointed UP, music turns OFF; manifesting the user's attentiveness and availability to communicate.

When the ears are folded DOWN, the music automatically turns ON and their folded position indicates listening mode.

Components: a hat with a. headphones b.tilt sensors c. music player.

Link to Coniglio Hat

Beds for audiences at a live concert

A mattress company in Israel has set up beds and blankets for the audience of a classical musical concert. [via Spluch]

Napster Mobile coming soon to Europe

Napster will launch its first mobile download service for Europe in Ireland later this month on Telefónica's O2 Ireland network, reports Infoworld.

"Customers will have access to Napster Mobile's catalog of 3 million songs, ring tones, and artist images."

The Canine Cacophony

Something we hope will be coming to a cell phone ringtone store near you: The Canine Cacophony, a public art project that creates playful encounters using sound and movement.

Canine Cacophony is a sound composition produced based on the activity and movements of the dogs in the Washington Square Park Dog Run.

What wil it sound like?

The sounds will tend towards the more natural, enhancing the chaotic, wild nature of the interactions in the dog run. We will work with a sound artist to more specifically develop sounds for the piece. For phase one of the project, the sound will be output through speakers situated along the edges of the dog run fence, facing outward. For phase 2, we will develop acoustic sound sculptures that will be placed throughout the park.

[via we-make-money-not-art.com]

Music companies make up for lower CD sales with singles and ringtones

Sales of individual song downloads are eroding the underpinnings of the CD and remixing the industry's economics, reports the IHT, in an interesting and lengthy article on the music industry's new business model.

Some interesting facts and figures:

-- Album sales are down 4.6 percent this year, according to Nielsen SoundScan data. Sales at digital-music services like iTunes continue to rise, but the pace of the increase has slowed compared with last year. Still, if every 10 individual tracks sold online are counted as albums, overall recorded music sales are off only by about 0.7 percent this year."

-- More and more, it is looking toward sales of bite-size units — individual songs typically sell for 99 cents — instead of full albums that may sell for $15 at record shops.

-- Barring a late surge in CD sales, more digital tracks than CDs will be sold in the United States for the first time this year.

The Tone Ladder

After customized ringtones for landline phones and programmable musical doorbells, another household item goes musical: the ladder.

The ToneLadder concept.

If a household ladder is extended with a melodic function, it will develop into a real musical instrument. The ordinary ladder transforms into a soundladder.

Stepping on a bar of the ladder creates a sound or tone which is different from rung to rung. So you can create a piece of music by stepping up and down on the ladder. Together with a partner you can even play a duet.

[via networked performance]

Morally ambiguous TV theme ringtones

If you are your ringtone, then what does it say about someone who choses the theme song from one of the latest TV series - who's main characters are morally ambiguous?

I'm thinking off Weeds (about a suburban widow who sels grass to raise her kids). The show's theme song entitled Little Boxes is available and actually sounds better than the real thing.

And somewhat comforting, I can't find Dexter's theme song yet. Dexter is a likeable serial killer.

Concern over mobile music-sharing

According to the BBC, children are increasingly swapping music via mobile phones, often without realising they can be breaking the law.

"A survey of almost 1,500 eight to 13-year-olds found almost a third shared music via their mobiles.

Children are using the built-in Bluetooth wireless feature of many phones to swap music - but without the consent of copyright holders.

Mr Hart, co-founder of Intuitive Media, which conducted the survey,, said: "Music sharing on the internet was identified by the industry as one of the biggest threats they've faced in recent years and this research shows that mobile has got the potential to exacerbate those problems".

... Matt Phillips, communications manager for the BPI, which represents the UK music industry, said: "The illegal sharing of music is clearly a concern for the record industry.

He added: "While swapping songs via Bluetooth is a concern for the industry, it hasn't caused the same problems as illegal p2p filesharing as it's copying on a one-to-one, rather than one-to-millions basis.

"Ultimately the way to grow revenues with mobile will be to offer music fans what they want and encourage them to get their music legally."

It's music to their ears but a nuisance to us

Not everyone thinks music phones are a good idea, and one of them is Auslan Cramb, who voices his displeasure over at The Telegraph. Basically he refers to them as tiny reincarnations of the ghetto blaster.

But he's not alone, petition containing several thousand signatures was handed yesterday to the mayor of London, on a blanket ban of mobile phones and mp3 players playing out loud in public transportion. The issue is to be raised in parliament.

"For the first time since the invention of the Sony Walkman, and its earphones, music that you have not chosen to listen to is back in the public domain.

The proliferation of mobile phones with built-in music players has resulted in an increasing number of people playing downloaded songs through their phones, without the use of earphones.

And while the ghetto blaster beloved of urban music fans in the 1980s came with no shortage of bass, the tiny speakers on mobile phones produce a sound about as relaxing as nails scraping on a blackboard."

[via SMSTextNews]