Ringtone Startup Courts MP3.com-style Legal Battle
from the byo-tunes dept
The ringtone market has been under pressure for some time, caused mainly by content providers' greed, but also by the growing number of ways for users to make their own ringtones from digital music files. A Silicon Valley startup called Phonezoo is targeting this market in a somewhat interesting way: users can submit their own ringtones for others to download for free, but if the ringtone is of a copyrighted song, users must upload a digital version of the song to "prove" they own it. Once you do this, Phonezoo apparently takes that upload and extracts the relevant snippet, or lets users edit it before downloading. It's a cool idea, and it's great to see free ringtones -- however it seems awfully unlikely that the recording industry will agree. Phonezoo's model sounds pretty similar to that of MP3.com's My.MP3.com service of several years ago, which gave users access to online copies of music once they'd inserted a copy of a CD in their computer to verify they actually owned it. The service, of course, got shut down by the record labels in 2000, and although many people thought MP3.com had plenty of grounds to appeal, the legal system made it essentially impossible for them to do so. Phonezoo's raised money from a group of angel investors including well-known VC Tim Draper, and is now looking to raise a few million dollars more -- but they're probably going to need much more than that to battle the record labels. Despite the weakness of the MP3.com decision, it looks like Phonezoo is setting themselves up for an uphill battle, After all, it's really difficult to see how uploading a ripped or downloaded version of a song actually proves a user legitimately bought it. Still, this doesn't validate the recording industry's approach to the ringtone market, which is based, essentially, on ripping people off and using lawsuits to protect the market. Call us crazy, but combining sales of recorded music with ringtones and other types of content so they offer consumers better value is just one idea they could use in an attempt to grow, rather than just try to maintain, their sales.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
There's the identity thing...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Let me get this strait
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BULLSHXT!!
A ringtone is not using the song in it's entirety.
A ringtone will not generate profit for the user.
WTF?! Pay for a ringtone? Please. this.is.bullshit
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]