Mark Harris
LORDS OF THE RINGTONES
Thursday 26 May 2005

The Crazy Frog phenomenon analysed... As basic bleeping ringtones evolve into high quality musical ‘realtones’, the businesses behind them are in turmoil. Here’s how the typical £3 cost of a realtone currently divides up...

By Mark Harris

Music publishers 32p
Sitting at the top of the content tree, music publishers are in a strong position. Whether a realtone is recorded by a sound-alike band as a cover version or snipped from the genuine chart-topping single, they’ll always receive their share. The only problem they have is trusting content aggregators and mobile operators to report accurately how many virtual ringtones have been sold.

Content aggregators and distributors 64p
The last five years have been heaven for these high tech entrepreneurs. Spotting the opportunity presented by high tech mobile phones, they’ve driven ringtone sales by marketing aggressively to the younger, mobile generation. They’re feeling the squeeze now from record labels keen to address consumers directly and many are diversifying into wallpaper images, animations and mobile games.

Mobile operators 75p
You might think the big mobile networks were sitting pretty, relying on the premium rate SMS messages that usually deliver ringtones, as well as offering convenient one-stop portals to browse and order content on the move. But mobile phones are becoming ever more connected: to the internet, to home computers and to each other. This could give online music stores and record companies access to consumers without using costly mobile networks at all.

Record labels £1.29
The record labels may have been slow to embrace digital music, but now they’re here to stay. Although their overall income from ringtones remains small, realtones are by far their most profitable channel – a 15-second ringtone clip can cost up to £4.50, while a CD-quality download of the whole track from a music store like iTunes costs just 79p. Record labels remain grumpy about ringtone cover versions, especially when it isn’t made clear that the consumer’s paying for a sound-alike rather than the original artist.

Source: Generator Solutions Ltd.

Here's the full story on the Indy's website (apologies, it's a pay link).

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