Communist Ringback Tones

State-controlled mobile service providers in China are offering communist ringback tone music, the tone that you hear while waiting for someone to pick up the line.

According to Trendhunter, the song played instead of the waiting tone is called ‘Guo Jia,’ which means ‘Country’ in Chinese.

These ringback tones were made to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China.

Google Developing 'Ringback Advertising' For Google Voice

This article from Information Week is dated July 23, but somehow I missed it then.

Google has updated a patent application filed last year for "ringback advertising," a form of audio advertising that appears to be intended to work with the company's Google Voice service.

Audio ads, the patent application says, may unnecessarily annoy consumers. But providing audio ads during a time otherwise used to play a ringback tone may allow advertising without annoyance "because the consumer would have to otherwise listen to some other form of audio."

Google patents Ringback advertizing

A patent assigned to Google describes how the search giant can monetize its Voice service: play ads while a call is dialing or placed on hold. arstechnica reports.

The patent application, called "Ringback Advertising," is assigned to Google. In general terms, it describes a system for delivering ads to any sort of phone system, including IP, cellular, or landline phones. The idea is to place software somewhere within the flow of telephony data that can identify when a given call is not active, then request audio ads for delivery during that time. Although this obviously pairs nicely with Google's Voice service, there's no reason it couldn't be rolled out to telcos that choose to partner with the search giant.

Read full article.

Room to Grow for Ringbacks

Carriers and others in the wireless ecosystem might be craving killer entertainment content beyond ringtones, but RealNetworks says there’s still plenty of room for growth, especially when it comes to ringbacks. Wireless Week reports.

Awareness remains the No. 1 challenge for ringback tones, says Analisa Roberts, senior director, Global Product Management and Marketing at RealNetworks. Part of the problem is people hear ringback tones when they’re calling someone else, so it’s not as if the whole world can hear it.

In the United States, ringback tone penetration is about 9 percent, so it has a lot of room to grow. Ringtone penetration is harder to gauge than ringbacks because ringbacks reside on the carrier network, which is not the case with ringtones.

Roberts says she can’t reveal specifics, but RealNetworks is working with its carrier partners on some programs to help drive ringback awareness. Most carriers have fairly extensive ringback catalogs.

... According to IDC, ringback tones will overtake ringtones in 2010 and are poised to become the single largest revenue source for mobile entertainment.

Vodafone to launch ring back tones in emerging markets

UK based network services provider Vodafone said it would introduce its “ring back tone” service to customers in emerging markets, a service only available to the company’s customers in India until now.

Ring back tones lets a caller listen to a song or other audio clip chosen by the owner of the mobile device whose number was dialed, instead of letting the caller listen to a traditional dial tone.

Ring back tones are widely used and make up a large proportion of business in the non-downloadable content market.

[via IT News Africa]

Vodafone to Expand Ringback Tone Deal into Emerging Markets

Vodafone has signed a deal with India based OnMobile to offer ringback tones in its emerging markets. ­Currently, millions of Vodafone Essar customers in India use OnMobile's ring back tone service, which will be rolled out across Vodafone’s other emerging markets from the Spring.

[via Cellular News]

Verizon Launches Business Ringback Tones

Verizon has launched a service dubbed Business Ringback Tones, which as you might imagine lets organizations replace the generic ring that people hear when they call them with a customized message. From The Washington Post.

Verizon has some seasoned advertising veterans for scriptwriting and experienced voiceover artists to create the 30-second custom tones, which the company can put on the lines of its employees' and can rotate five active messages so callers hear different ones each time they call. The business can assign different tones to different sets of employees, and let them know of changes to the tone profile via SMS.

KTF Launches Money-Saving Ring-Back Tone Service

A ring-back tone service that helps customers save money, while providing companies with a new advertisement channel is now available. KTF announced the launch of Save Ring service that gives customers discounts if they select advertisements as their mobile ring-back tones.

[via Telecoms Korea]

Apple Investigating Ringback Tones for iPhone?

According to ZDNet's Rumor Mill, Apple is is currently in negotiations with music labels about adding more mobile music options on their iTunes store and is also investigating selling ringback tones which customize the sound your caller hears when the phone is ringing when they call you.

Don't Answer That Phone Call - Just Yet

Turkish operator, Turkcell has launched "TonlaKazan" ("Tone&Win") which offers branded ringback tones to its subscribers. The customers then earn airtime credits by letting callers to their mobile phone listen to the ringback tone - which is basically an advert.

Turkcell customers win airtime or credits depending on the amount of time their callers listen to a branded RingBack Tone selected by the customer.

[via Cellular News]

Growth in ringback tones energizes mobile market

As the cash cow that was the ringtones market slowly heads to pasture, the music industry is turning to a new mobile stud -- ringback tones. Reuters reports.

Ringbacks -- the music you hear when you call someone -- represent the only area of significant growth for mobile music-related applications in the last year. The number of mobile subscribers who reported purchasing a ringback tone increased 69% from February 2007 to February 2008, according to data from M:Metrics.

By comparison, neither ringtones nor wallpaper images could keep pace with the overall market growth, increasing by only 4.3% and 6.2%, respectively, in the same time frame."

"The growth of ringbacks is among the fastest trajectory for growth of any services we're tracking," M:Metrics analyst Mark Donovan says.

Alicia Keys Goes Gold On Ringback Tones

In the US, the RCA Music Group has announced Alicia Keyes hit single "No One" recently became the first ever Gold-selling ringback (the sound you hear when calling someone else) tune.

This means sales of snippets of the song to be used as a ringback have exceeded 500,000 copies or the same number required to achieve Gold status in the album, single and ringtone charts.

[via Smarthouse]

Analysts see 'ringback tones' part of a $40 billion industry

"Ringback tones" are about to turn into the single largest mobile entertainment revenue source, overtaking mobile ringtones by 2010, according to a new study by analyst group IDC.

"Ringback tones will overtake ringtones in 2010 and become the single largest revenue source for mobile entertainment due to a variety of inherent advantages.

The IDC study, «Worldwide Mobile Entertainment 2007-20011 Forecast», analyzes the opportunity for mobile entertainment services, applications, and content types on a global basis.

[via Beta News]

Virgin Mobile USA: Ringbacks on the rise

According to Virgin Mobile USA and content partner LiveWire Mobile, more than 100,000 customers now subscribe to its Ringback services, with an average of two ringbacks per consumer.

The number of U.S. ringback subscribers tripled last year, based on industry research.

[via FierceMobile Content and Press release]

Ringbacks Could Feature Ad

The number of U.S. ringback subscribers tripled last year, according to M:Metrics. WebPro News reports.

A recent J.D. Power and Associates study also found that 9 percent of U.S. mobile consumers used ringbacks.

IDC estimates that 40 million global users will subscribe to ringback tones by 2010.

"In North America, 10.8 million people are using ringbacks today," said John Orlando, vice president of marketing at NMS Communications LiveWire Mobile. "Places like Spain are north of 10% penetration, India is near 40% and markets like Korea have stabilized around 60%."

In a likely unpopular move ringbacks could include advertisements. Subscribers friends would be forced to listen to the ads. The subscriber would receive discounts on mobile content or free minutes, and the mobile provider would collect the ad revenue."

Related: - Jajah Ring-back tones to carry adverts

"Don't Tase Me, Bro" ringback tone

"Don't Tase Me, Bro," a phrase that swept the nation after a college student used it seeking to stop campus police from throwing him out of a speech by Sen. John Kerry, was named on Wednesday as the most memorable quote of 2007.

Meyer's quote was a symbol of pop culture success. Within two days it was one of the most popular phrases on Google and one of the most viewed videos. It also showed up as a ringback tone on Verizon and T-shirts.

[via Reuters]

Ring-back tones to carry adverts

Wannabe telecommunications company Jajah is planning to replace the ringing tone with recording advertisements, when the user wants them, with the revenue split 50-50 between customer and operator. The Register reports.

"... According to Jajah co-founder Daniel Mattes the average time spent listening to a ringing tone is 12 seconds, time which could be spent listening to adverts provided by Jajah.

The company has signed a deal with advertising brokerage Oridian, and is already pitching the idea to companies that might be interested before launching the service on December 1."

Biz potential of ringback tones still untapped

Next to SMS or text messaging, ring-back tones (RBT) has been touted as a lucrative revenue source for mobile operators. However, based on its uptake across the globe, it seems it has not lived up to its billing - yet.

In a report entitled "SUCCESS; Ringback Deployment and Adoption Best Practices", NMS Communications identified key barriers to subscriber uptake and the historical reasons for slow uptake of any content-based mobile service.

[via America's Network]

Ringback boom…or bust?

Ringback tones have been available from U.S. operators for a year or two, but most carriers are using their marketing dollars to push full-song downloads rather than ringback tones. Fierce Mobile Content reports.

"... Yet, according to a recent survey from M:Metrics, ringback tones have experienced "healthy" growth over the past six months and now have a penetration rate of 5 percent. In fact, M:Metrics stats say that there were 8.4 million ringback tone subscribers at the end of March 2007, up from 2.3 million at the end of December 2005.

Interesting, ringback tones tend to appeal to an older demographic group than those who buy ringtones. Also, males are bigger ringback buyers than females."

Personalized Audio and Video Ringbacks

From a CTIA preview on News.com.

"Openwave, a mobile mini-browser developer, offered a glimpse of its new Audio and Video Ringback Solution.Instead of just playing a song as a ring back, friends sporting a video-enabled phone can also be treated to a short clip of a music video when they get your call.

Openwave plans to formerly launch the new video ringback on Tuesday when the CTIA's fall show officially opens. The company's reps say it's in trials with at least one U.S. mobile operator, but so far are keeping mum on who exactly is testing it. They also wouldn't say which handsets will come ready with the new video ringback capability."

Ringback tones help corporates bond with customers

Companies in India have caught on to ringback tones are are incorporating their signature tone son their employees handsets, according to The Times of India.

"The tone is mostly an ad jingle which has worked so well for the company that it wants to be identified with it.

Sanjay Tikotekar, jt GM, ICICI Bank, says, "The mobile phone is an important device through which the customer interacts with the bank. We felt that by introducing this jingle as a standard ringback tone, we could reiterate commitment to our customers."

Says Naveen Chopra, chief marketing officer, Hutch,"If you are contacting a corporate executive and hear the company tone, you know immediately that you've dialled the right number."

Also, a standardised ringback tone is seen as building affinity inside an organisation. Adds Sanjay Kapoor, jt president, mobility, Bharti Airtel, "Our research has shown that a corporate executive gets a minimum of 30 calls everyday. When both employees and customers hear the same tone, it goes a long way in reinforcing brand identity." .

Relaled in corporate way, and one of my favorite stories:

-- Company song a smash hit on the charts - The corporate song of a Japanese demolition firm, Nihon Break Kogyo, broke into 22nd place of the nation's most influential music charts in December 2003.

McRingback

To help customers chose a ringback tone, Verizon Wireless offers a 7 question quizz to help them figure out their relationship with the person they are assigning the ringback tone to. On Get it NowRingback Tones.

Cingular Releases Answer Tones: Their Version Of Ringbacks

Cingular has announced the launch of their ringback tones wich they call Answer Tones, suggesting you give your callers something to listen to.

Cingular subscribers can even designate the time of day they want their caller's to hear an Answer Tone and assign tones to a specific number, group, or to everyone that may call.

Also, AnswerTones introduces Say My Name Greetings. "You decide what callers will hear when they dial your number... you can even add a personal message and have an artist like Yung Joc, The Wreckers, or Juvenile answer your phone". [via
Gizmodo]

More on Answer Tones on Cingular Website.

Ringback Tone Patent Awarded

Cellular News reports that "nearly two years after the actual introduction of ringback tones by wireless carriers, the U.S. Patent Office has granted fficial patent status to patent filer Karl Seelig, CEO of Perceptive Impression, for ring back signal replacement. (The technology is way over my head, but seems to involve fixed line phones as well.)

"This final step-up from patent allowability affords Perceptive Impression full legal rights to a market projected to run close to US$3 billion in revenue over the next several years."

US Patent 7,006,608 B2

Ring Back Tone Promotes Business

China Broadcast reports on how Chinese people have begun to use ringback tones, to promote business and help manage public affairs.

"A Coloring Ring Back Tone has recently been applied by Pinggu District of Beijing to promote its peach blossom festival this April.

After dialing the cell phones of Pinggu residents before and during the festival, people would hear a popular song praising the beauty of peach blossoms and a recorded message saying "The Eighth Beijing Pinggu International Peach Blossom Festival will open on April 16. We welcome you to join the joy. Pinggu is the world's largest peach growing base with 14,667 hectares covered by peach blossoms this season. Welcome to Pinggu!"

China ringback tones fad rings up big bucks

According to Reuters, "ringback tones -- the sound a caller hears in the seconds they wait for another person to answer -- is big business in China".

" China Mobile, t said in March that "new" businesses, consisting of data and content, grew 59 percent and accounted for a fifth of revenue in 2005, versus 15.5 percent in 2004.

Within that total, ringback tone revenue was one of the fastest-growing segments, quadrupling to 3.42 billion yuan ($427 million) in 2005 from just 848 million yuan the previous year."

Personalized celebrity ringback tones all the rage in Bollywood

Personalized celebrity ringback tones are the latest rage in India, according to Sify.com, who gives us a look at what's playing on the phones of the country's favorite celebs.

"Bipasha Basu gives new meaning to the term wacky. Call her up and you will be greeted by her own voice, frantically searching for her phone. And she asking everyone from her Mom to her dog Poshto where her phone is.

... Apart from dialogues, it is common practice for Bollywood celebrities to have the songs of their latest projects as their ring back tones. Last year, when Tanushree Dutta hit the scene, she had two releases lined up back to back.

Orange UK launches Calling Tunes

Pocket-lint reports that Orange UK has launched ringback tones on Friday, or Calling Tunes.

"Calling Tunes will let users choose music to play to callers while they’re waiting for you to answer your phone. Orange customers can order Calling Tunes as of Friday by visiting the Orange World mobile portal or by calling 477 on any Orange mobile.

According to Orange, Hundreds of music tracks are available to choose from with more added every week ranging from the latest chart hits to film, TV and sports themes."

Free Calls With Advertising Ring-Back Tones

According to mobiledia, PromoTel is testing advertising ring-back tones, which may provide cost-free calling in the future.

"The company will now move forward with plans for a January 2006 field test allowing select customers in target markets to make free, unlimited local and nationwide calls. "

Related article: - Ring-back Tones to Become Advertising Channel

Ringback Tones - "How to"

TECHtionary has issued a press release in geekspeak, giving the how-to to wireless carriers on implementing CRBT-Color Ring Back Tones. Way over my head!

Ring-back Tones to Become Advertising Channel

You pick up a phone. You dial a number. You hear a ringing signal that will continue until the call is answered or you hang up. You are listening to a "ring back" signal that is currently being replaced by music and eventually, advertisements.

If Perceptive Impression has their way, the music will be replaced with targeted advertisements the company creates.

Perceptive Impression claims that "ring back" ads are the newest advertising platform. According to consultancy Ovum, the worldwide market for "ring backs" is projected to grow from US$148 million in 2003 to US$2.4 billion by 2008.

[via Cellular News]

Coloring Ringback Tone Service Popular in China

The Coloring Ring BackTone Service is a value-added service which is becoming extremely popular among mobile phone users in China. Reports say more than 30 million mobile phone users, especially the young, have subscribed to the service, reports Realtime China.

"Some experts even say the fashionable service is leading the mobile phone and music economy that it is generating 100 million yuan revenue a month for mobile phone service carriers.

A bold prediction says in two years time, about 80 percent of cell phone users will subscribe the service and the monthly revenue can reach a billion yuan.

But some other experts are not so optimistic about the development of the service. According to Gao Bing is a professor with the Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, in general more people will use the service. But, remember that most are young people and fashion changes quickly."

Ringback tones in China From 1m to 40m in a year

Interesting feedback on the success of ringback tones in China, according to China Daily.

Lu Xiangdong, deputy general manager of China Mobile, said its subscriber base for ringback tone services grew from 1 million at the beginning of 2004 to more than 40 million by the end of the year.

Verizon and Universal Music Group offer Ringback tones

Verizon Wireless announced it has entered into an agreement with Universal Music Group, to bring new Ringback Tones from the company's extensive catalog of chart-topping artists to Verizon Wireless Ringback Tone customers.

With an extensive collection of 500 hot Ringback Tones, Universal Music Group is the newest resource for Verizon Wireless customers looking for the perfect Ringback Tone to replace the standard ring callers hear while they wait for their call to be answered.

Verizon Wireless became the first national carrier to offer Ringback Tones when it introduced the service in Southern California and Sacramento last year. [via
Press release]

Swisscom mobile to launch Ringback tones

Swisscom Mobile has announced the launch of a ringback tones service for July. They call them "signal d'appel" or "R'nB'".

Link to press release.

ECT CLAIMS SUCCESSFUL YEAR FOR RING BACK TONES

The European Computer Telecoms Group (ECT) has said that Vodafone Germany has extended its capacity for its Ring Back Tones (RBT) service following a successful first year. The service supplier has also announced Tele2 Norway as the latest operator to buy it RBT offering. [via MobileEurope]

"ECT has deals with Tele2 across Europe andf ollowing the launch of its RBT service (Ringuppsignaler) in Sweden in May 2004, the Tele2 Group is now rolling out Ringoppsignaler in Norway, but using the Swedish installation to support the Norwegian service. "

Asia's ringback tone craze

Red Herring writes about Ring back tones (RBT) - nothing really new for anyone following this column, but it's a good recap. One interesting point not covered here before, is about companies acquiring rights for particular artists for exclusive ringback tones - this is new.

"Subscribers to the service in China are expected to more than triple to 65 million customers this year from 20 million last year when the service was launched by China Mobile. In South Korea, where the service has been available since 2002, a whopping 40 percent of cellular subscribers use ringback tones offered by carriers SK Telecom, KT Freetel, and LG Telecom".

[...] RBT has helped to take up the slack left by a softening Chinese market in SMS value-added services, which has been hurt by stricter billing practices and government regulations.

[...] RBT has, in the last six months, begun to gain significant traction in the U.K. But why has this low-tech service failed to catch fire in America? With T-Mobile and Verizon having recently begun offering the service, Mr. Rashtchy -managing director of Piper Jaffray- is bullish: “I believe it will take off soon with young people in America as well.”

And interesting

"Some companies are now acquiring rights for particular artists. Tom Online, for instance, signed an exclusive deal for ringback tones with Taiwan hip-hop sensation Jay Chou in mid-2004, and Linktone has signed deals for RBTs from top artists in the Sony and EMI stables. “Our music partners have had enough foresight to see this as a wireless, and even fixed-line, digital music opportunity,” said Mr. Begert."

Ringbacks hit Canada

Coming this month to a cellular phone near you - if you're a Canadian Bell subscribers -- "ringback tones".

Universal Music Canada is supplying 100 songs to start -- most of them in the adult-contemporary genre. Bell's "Callertunes" ringback service begins tomorrow.

A busy week for Canada, as Virgin Mobile has just launched in Quebec. Anyone interested in Virgin can follow the news in their Virginbrand.com Blog.

Caller IDs: Cellphone users can personalize 'ringbacks'

Chris Marlowe for the Hollywood Reporter has written a wonderful article on ringback tones.

"Few people give it much thought, but the ringing they hear when placing a phone call is just a sound effect to reassure them the connection is going through. There's no reason besides heritage for that sound to be a ring. And thanks to "ringbacks," there's no reason for it to stay that way.

Ringbacks let mobile consumers change that sound for one of their own choosing. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger could opt for constituents to hear Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It - his campaign song - before he or his aide answers the call.

Verizon Wireless made its first foray into this field in November, with a rollout limited to Sacramento and San Diego. Gregg Yacovone, director of marketing for the Verizon Wireless West Area, said that it was so successful that Verizon this week will expand its Ringback Tones option throughout throughout other States with plans to make the service available to its 42.1 million nationwide customers by the middle of the year.

Unlike ring tones, ringbacks reside on the network so they can be used with any mobile phone and sound similar to an FM radio.

So far, only Warner Music Group and Sony BMG are participating in ringbacks, but all major labels are confirming interest and licenses with their artists and sub- labels."

Ring Back Tone at TeliaSonera Finland

TeliaSonera Finland, the largest carrier in Finland, rolls out a new ring back tone service, "Sonera Theme Music" (Tunnari)

With the ECT Ring Back Tone Application, mobile customers can choose various songs, jokes or other sounds played to the person who calls them, while they also hear the familiar ring back tone.

The service works regardless of who calls. All Sonera mobile phone customers can use the service. The new service including a complete demonstration of the web interface can be seen at www.soneraplaza.fi/mobiili/kuvataanet

Your favorite song rings their phone

Delaware Online has a good article on ringback tones in the US with some figures.

"Verizon Wireless, the first major U.S. company to offer the gimmick, is selling more than 2,200 tunes as the sound a caller will hear instead of the standard ring.

For 99 cents a month and $1.99 per tune, customers can go to ringbacktones.vzw.com and choose from songs in 12 genres that callers will hear when the phone rings.

Nationwide, ring tones are generating a projected $300 million in sales for 2004. Billboard magazine tracks the hottest: Currently No. 1 is "Drop It Like It's Hot," by Snoop Dogg.

Hong Kong 'ring-ring': An ad in every call

The Asia Times reports that "Ad-Phone has patented a system to replace the ring-back tone - that "ring-ring" you hear while waiting for the person you called to answer - with an advertisement or other message.

Using the digital technology that connects calls, Ad-Phone puts messages directly into consumers' ears, whether they're using a mobile phone or a wired line."

"Ad-Phone converts the idle time waiting for calls to connect into a direct channel to reach more than 4 billion consumers around the world," chief executive officer Dr Paolo Conconi said. "We've declared the next revolution in advertising."

In their own words:

We call it “Advertisement Tone Message”.

Be afraid...

What troubles me is their claiming to have patented ringback tones (?). By my books, Ringback tones, called Color Ring, were pioneered by SK Telecom in Korea and launched in April 2002. After China and Hong Kong, they launched in Europe and America in 2003.

According to Brough Turner, Senior Vice President and CTO in an article entitled Changing the Sound of Telephony published in NMS Communications last Spring. NMS sells the technology for ringback service to SK Telecom. cf post in ringtonia.com.

Cellphones Play a New Tune

A general round-up article on ringtones and ringbacks with some industry figures from the WSJ.

"Cellphone ring tones, which have quietly become a 3 billion dollar industry, now come with a new twist: the ring-back tone.

The new ring-tone option enables customers to program the phone to play a ring tone for the caller, too, thereby effectively doing away with the traditional ringer altogether.

One potential glitch: Several wireless executives say some callers have hung up when they encountered what sounded to them like hold music, thinking that they've misdialed.

[..] Monophonic ring tones usually cost about 99 cents to purchase, while polyphonic tones can be slightly higher. Real tones or master tones are three times higher, costing around $2.99 each.

[..] Record labels get anywhere from 25% to 40% of this price. Music publishers also get a share, though it is unclear how big a slice. The rest of the revenue is split between the cellular-service providers and the companies that actually create the ring tones.

Hip-Hop Dominating Emerging "Ringback" Business

According to AllHipHop.com news, Hip-Hop dominated the top-sellers on T-Mobile's new ringback service, Caller Tunes.

"The “ringback” service allows customers to replace the ringing sounds callers hear when someone dials their number.

Of T-Mobile's the top ten most purchased Caller Tunes, Hip-Hop accounted for seven, including two tracks by Lil Jon & The Eastside Boys and his affiliated group Crime Mob.

The other three entries came from Marvin Gaye, Beyonce and Christina Aguilera".

T-Mobile Kicks Off Nationwide Ringback Service

T-Mobile USA is getting into the ringback tone fray with the introduction of CallerTunes, a service powered by Ztango. T-Mobile claims to be the first U.S. carrier to launch a ringback service nationwide. [via Wireless Week]

"In November, Verizon Wireless unveiled its Ringback Tones service, but the service is only available in its Southern California market at this time. With the help of Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Verizon Wireless is offering a catalog of more than 2,200 songs.

In October, Lucent Technologies introduced its MiRingBack application, which enables subscribers to create caller profiles and enables them to assign different tones to different callers. The first operator is use it is Telecom New Zealand.