Are Ringtones The New Singles?

from the scary-thoughts dept

Tue, Aug 12th 2003 1:41am — Mike Masnick

A few trends seem to be converging. The concept of selling a music "single" has been disappearing (can you believe it lasted this long?) while "ringtones" are increasingly popular with kids who don't mind annoying everyone around them. So, now, someone noticed that, in the UK, sales of ringtones will outsell singles this year. I don't think this is that big of a deal - and, in fact, am a bit surprised that it took this long. However, it does bring up a few questions. Will music companies start looking to ringtone downloads as the measure of how successful certain songs are? Already, companies are offering stats on music downloads, but the music industry hates to recognize anything official about music downloads, and would clearly prefer to use some system where they're at least getting their tollbooth fee. However, what happens when people finally figure out how to set up file sharing systems for ringtones? Or software starts making the rounds that lets you turn an MP3 into a ringtone? Will the market for paid-for ringtones still survive?

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JT, 12 Aug 2003 @ 1:41am

Ringtones and Singles
Ringtones are a complement to already established songs, I dont see songs being promoted before hand by ring tones alone, the reason it has been so successful is due to the brand push from identified artists and generally street cred to be different. The single adds no value to the consumer in thsi new generation as changing too many singles in a cd player is a pain, hence the reason why they combine all there songs ripped into one CD. Ringtones have yet to out sell compilations which is the biggest in sales and repeat sales for the same reason, I am not sure that we will see the top 10 ringtones on top of the pops being performed but I am pretty sure we will see close branding of artists and handset manufacturers, which is deemed to create a sponsorship war with operators. My tuppence worth
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Aug 2003 @ 2:26am

Isn't that the point?
Kids like to annoy adults, because then they can gain control over adults' emotions. Since adults today grew up on rock, kids could outrage adults by not listening to it. Why not play ringtones or car alarms really loud in public places, getting adults to talk about the end of civilization?
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aNonMooseCowherd, 12 Aug 2003 @ 3:19pm

No Subject Given
RIAA will start charging you every time your phone rings. If you don't pay up, the subpoena will be delivered straight to your phone.

Then the advertisers will see the big dollar signs dangling in front of them and will get in cahoots with the phone manufacturers to put ads in ringtones, which you'll still have to pay to listen to.
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