Create Free Custom Ringtones from Youtube Videos

Mobilespin announces new enhancement to its existing popular ringtone tool that converts Youtube videos into ringtones for free. Anyone can now turn their favorite non-copyrighted Youtube videos into ringtones.

Creating free ringtones from Youtube videos can all be done online without any software purchase or download. There are only 3 simple steps to making Youtube ringtones:

1- Entering the Youtube URL of the video in the Ringtone Tool for upload
2- Picking the desired segment
3- Downloading the ringtone

The ringtone tool extracts the audio portion from the Youtube video. Once clipped, the tool turns the audio into popular mobile formats and then it can be downloaded to computer, directly to mobile phone through SMS or WAP page.

Full press release.

Talk radio show host launches ringtones

Robert "Rob" Redding Jr. of Redding News Review appears to be the first syndicated talk radio show host to officially offer ringtones of his show.

Redding, who is known as America's Independent Voice, says listeners can now download some of his most popular radio moments: "Where's my whip?", "Get off the plantation!" or "Making sure this is on!"

[via Redding News Review]

Quiet cars to offer choice of "honktones"

A quiet engine, once the source of pride of luxury carmakers, has become a safety problem and amid the increasing number of quiet vehicles a new market has emerged: artificial car noises. JoongAng Daily reports.

Companies have come out with jet plane, motorcycle and sports-car noises that can be played outside of cars. They also sell solemn concertos, gentle sonatas and songs of birds to alert people of a car’s approach. Like cell phone ringtones, drivers can choose from a range of noises depending on their mood or the road conditions.

Free Endangered Species Ringtones Site Now Available in Spanish

The Center for Biological Diversity has just launched a free all-Spanish Web site for endangered wildlife species.

You can personalize your ringtones with the calls of the jaguar, coquí guajón, Mexican gray wolf, harpy eagle, Mexican spotted owl, and 31 other calls from the wilderness.

[via EarthTimes.org]

Half-a-Million Ringtones created by AutoRingtone users

AutoRingtone app from No Tie Software gives users the ultimate flexibility in creating their own unique ringtones for the iPhone, as well as other non-Apple phones.

Users can combine about 200 sound effects with dozens of quality voices to announce their uncensored message. In fact, iPhone owners can use ringtones as alarm clock alerts, such as “Chris, it is time to take your medicine.”

Read dull press release on Appmodo.

LiveWire Mobile Goes Commercial with Advertising Ringback Tone Service

LiveWire Mobile, Inc is announcing a new premium advertising service providing wireless carriers an innovative way to generate revenue and increase customer loyalty.

Called RingSpot(TM), the fully opt-in service allows mobile operators to offer consumers the newest personalization option for their mobile devices -- replacing the ring that callers hear when calling them -- with short and clever marketing messages delivered by national advertisers, non-profits and local merchants.

The LiveWire Mobile service enables callers to engage with an ad by pressing a button to receive more information after the call via a text message.

Full press release.

Cell phones that do music really well

From the San Francisco Chronicle, a review of the best music phones.

EMI Publishing Wins German Mastertone Case

According to Billboard, EMI Music Publishing Germany has won a guiding lawsuit against the German mobile network T-Mobile at the Federal High Court (BGH) in Karlsruhe.

The court decided that T-Mobile is not allowed to offer mastertones or ringtones with works from the EMI publishing catalog to customers without prior consent.

In the past, the providers of ringtones and mastertones have challenged the need for prior consent from publishers to transfer works to the mobile format, as well as opposing the two-step licensing model for songs that involves the publisher and collecting society GEMA.

The mastertone providers were only willing to pay licenses to GEMA but denied there was a need for separate clearance from the music publishers.

In its decision, the Federal High Court stated that the two-step licensing model is legally correct and that permission is required from music publishers.

Read full article.

$30m loss a year from illegal music downloads in Malaysia

More than 9,400 illegal mobile phone outlets nationwide are selling song downloads illegally to the public. Asia One reports.

Public Performance Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Recording Industry Association of Malaysia chief executive officer Tan Ngiap Foo said the figure was based on surveys.

Malaysia has about 10,000 mobile phone shops but only 600 were trading in legal ringtone downloads.

Read full article

Universal Music Releases An iPhone Game To Promote Artists, Sell Tracks

Universal Music Group was early to tap into the whole music gaming phenomenon by partnering with Tapulous to make iPhone apps for artists such as Lady Gaga and Souja Boy Tell ‘Em. Now it’s branching off and working with others to create even more gaming applications.

[via paidContent.org]

Download growth boosts 2009 UK music royalties

British songwriters, composers and music publishers earned 623 million pounds ($944.8 million) in royalties in 2009, up 2.6 percent on 2008 and the first time the growth in digital revenues outperformed the drop in CD and DVD earnings.

[Yahoo! News]

'Therapeutic ringtones' for mobile phones create a buzz in Japan

The Times Online on “therapeutic ringtones” — a genre of melodies that promises to ease a range of day-to-day gripes, from chronic insomnia to a rotten hangover - popular in Japan.

Related:

-- Ringtones to clear a stuffy nose

-- Ringtones that calm crying babies

-- Mozart Ringtones to relieve Hayfever and Stiff shoulders

-- Therapeutic ringtones

-- Pherotones

-- Samsung launched Phone which generated alpha waves

-- The Breast Enlarging ringtone

-- Mosquitotone: The teenage repellent ringtones

Murdoch is trying to sell off Crazy Frog creator, Jamster

According to The Daily Mail, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is looking to sell its mobile content business Jamster, responsible for the annoying mobile ringtones Crazy Frog and Sweety the Chick.

... Sales of ringtones have been in decline in Britain since the boom in 2005 when Crazy Frog kept Coldplay from top of the music charts. Gareth Turpin at digital intelligence firm comScore said: 'Sales have been hit hard by smart phones, which have eaten into graphics and ringtones through app stores.'

Read full article.

Related - Crazy Frog articles

Pink Floyd Wins Court Battle With EMI Over Downloads

The court ruling prevents the record company from selling single downloads on the Internet from the group's concept albums. The New York Times reports.

Lawyers said it was the first time a royalties dispute between artists and their record companies had been held in private, after EMI successfully applied for a news blackout for reasons of “commercial confidentiality.”

Read full article.

Ringtones - don't pay the price

According to Directgov, 37 per cent of 11 to 18 year olds have used music or video content on their phone in the last six months. But many are unaware of the charges for these services.

The findings were published by PhonepayPlus, the regulator for phone-paid services in the UK and an agency of Ofcom. They're running the 'PhoneBrain' campaign to help prevent students from being lured into paying premium rate charges.

Read full article.

Ringtones to clear a stuffy nose

Asiajin, Japan Ringing Tone Laboratory (JRTL) has come up with special ringtones that clear a stuffy nose.

According to Toms Guide:

The collection, called "Haba Sukkiri Melody," will make the nose resonate at the same frequency with pollens adherent inside your nasal cavity. Eventually the ringtones-- using 27 variations of frequency from 420 Hz to 1070 Hz-- will force the pollens to fall right out of your nose.

Related:

-- Ringtones that calm crying babies

-- Mozart Ringtones to relieve Hayfever and Stiff shoulders

-- Therapeutic ringtones -muPass ringtone has eveloped in collaboration with the Japan Acoustic Lab and the Japan Ringtone Lab, ringtones with a calming effect.

-- Pherotones are ringtones with names like Testeroni or El Cuddlero that claim to make you irresistible to the opposite sex.

-- Samsung launched Phone which generated alpha waves that are supposed to enhance memory and concentration .

-- The Breast Enlarging ringtone - A member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult launched (very successfully) a ringtone which claimed to make a women's breasts grow larger - just by listening to it

-- Mosquitotone - The teenage repellent ringtones

Judges: you can't claim "innocence" of musical copyrights

An appeals court found last week that the "innocent infringer" defense used by a young woman accused of file-sharing could not be used, since CDs contained a printed copyright notice.

[via arstechnica]