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Ringtones Are $2.1 Billion Business

TMCnews Featured Article


November 10, 2011

Ringtones Are $2.1 Billion Business

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor


Ringtones are more than just a way to annoy the person next to you when getting a call on your cellphone. They are an amazingly high $2.1 billion sector.

Just how important are ringtones in the sector? AllThingsD's Peter Kafka comments that ringtones are “one of the key pillars of the music business.”


Gartner (News - Alert) explains ringtones and ring-back tones are purchased by consumers for mobile devices, All Things D said.

“Typically, these can be acquired directly from service providers and synched to the mobile phone over the air, or can be acquired via a PC or connected device and then synched to the mobile phone,” All Things D said.

Overall, the number of music downloads increase slowly. They are “dominated by Apple’s (News - Alert) iTunes,” according to The Atlantic Wire. But that also means if digital music is to increase, “it’s going to be up to subscription services like Spotify (News - Alert), which up until now haven’t gained any real traction,” The Atlantic Wire adds.

In its analysis of current trends, All Thing D reports, “CD sales have been plummeting for more than a decade, and during that time, optimists would keep telling us that digital music sales would end up replacing the revenue that went away with discs. That has yet to happen. And if it ever does, it won’t be anytime soon.”

Ringtones are part of a larger sector of digital music. Gartner Group says revenue in the digital music sector will be $7.7 billion – by 2015. In that year, CD sales will total about $10 billion.

In other recent news about ringtones, Alltel (News - Alert) will launch Zed's RealTone JukeBox VIP Club subscription application for Alltel Wireless subscribers nationwide, according to TMCnet.

The RealTone JukeBox VIP Club is a subscription-based application with music ringtones and related products from four record labels: Sony BMG (News - Alert), Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and EMI, TMCnet adds.


Ed Silverstein is a TMCnet contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves







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