Phone tones ring £70m change to charts music
By Ian Burrell, Media Editor
27 May 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=525305
THE INDEPENDENT
Britain's youth would now rather spend their pocket money on a new ring-tone
for their mobile phone than on buying the latest music on CD.
Official recognition of the extraordinary rise of a cultural phenomenon that
may come to the rescue of the stricken music industry will emerge next week
with the publication of the first "Ring Tone Chart".
The chart, which is backed by the British Phonographic Industry and is being
compiled by the accountants KPMG, will highlight an industry that has grown
toabout £70m within the UK. Singles sales were worth only £63m last year.
The rise of the ring-tones has been driven by technological advances that
mean mobile phones can reverberate to the sound of the original music
recording.
Ralph Simon, who founded Your Mobile, the company that introduced ring-tones
to the UK six years ago, said the sound of a person's phone was an
indication of their character. "People don't buy the music so that they can
listen to it like they do a CD at home. It's something that you would want
to play to friends or work-mates as your social identifier," he said.
Although the latest pop hits are also among the most in-demand ring-tones,
many mobile phone users are choosing to align themselves with familiar theme
tunes from film and television.
The themes to Only Fools and Horses, The Simpsons and the macho "Eye of The
Tiger" from the soundtrack to the film Rocky III and seasonal tunes like
"Summertime" are rivalling pop-chart favourites such as Frankee and Eamon.
The American singer Beyoncé Knowles has sold more than half a million
ring-tones of each of her last two releases in the UK, the equivalent of a
gold disc.
A growing proportion of Britain's 45 million mobile phone users are willing
to part with around £3 for a "true tone" ring-tone, which is in effect a
30-second soundbite of the original recording. The technology even allows
for phone owners to have one ring-tone for calls from their boyfriend and
another for when they are being rung by their mother.
Britain has emerged as one of the strongest European markets for the trend,
alongside Finland, which is the home of the mobile telephone giant Nokia.
Mr Simon said: "What's happening in Europe is that for the first time you
are seeing more ring-tones sold than singles. There is a growing awareness
that mobile music is becoming an ... imperative for the future of the music
business, which is going through tough times."
Britain is now set to beat the United States to having an official ring-tone
chart. The first ring-tone top 20 will be published in the magazine Music
Week next Monday.
David Simmons, chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Ring Tone
Initiative, first had the idea for the chart two years ago. "There was this
huge intellectual gap between the mobile phone industry and the music
industry, which was reading about the growth of this new business but not
seeing any of the cheques."
Calum Chace, a director of KPMG, said that unlike the unsophisticated
"plonkety-plonk" early ringtones, which only generated publishing royalties
for the music industry, the radio quality sounds now available commanded far
more substantial mechanical royalties.
Ajax Scott, editor of Music Week, said: "The music industry has always been
about selling records, concert tickets and merchandise. Technology is
changing all that."
MOST POPULAR RING-TONES
Frankee, FURB (FU Right Back)
Eamon F**k, It (I Don't Want You Back)
50 Cent, PIMP
George and Ira Gershwin, Summertime
Mission Impossible Theme
Only Fools And Horses Theme
The Simpsons Theme
Survivor, Eye of the Tiger
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