Cell Phone Rings Equal Bling Bling
By Chana R. Schoenberger

The newest hip-hop accessory for the urban set: a cell phone with rap-inspired ring tones.
Phone users are rushing to download tiny music files that blare when a phone rings or when the user has voicemail. And what they want on their phones is hip-hop music. The most popular ring tone downloaded onto cell phones last year was taken from the song "In Da Club," by rapper 50 Cent, and the current front-runner is Grammy winner OutKast. Seven of the ten most-downloaded ring tones in 2003 on the Cingular Wireless network were hip-hop songs.

Ring tones are big business, with $2.5 billion spent to buy them worldwide last year. In the United States, phone users spent $80 million on them in 2003, quadruple what they paid in 2002. This year, they are expected to spend north of $100 million, according to the Yankee Group research firm. Each file typically costs between 99 cents and $2.49, depending on the sound quality. But users don't seem to be deterred by the price.

"It's unbelievable the appetite that people have for these ring tones, and their willingness to pay," says Adam Zawel, director of mobile enterprise and commerce at Yankee Group.

Hip-hop music's popularity on cell phones can be traced back to both the phones and the users. People between the ages of 16 and 34 tend to be the ones downloading, and, as the Grammy awards attest, hip-hop is what they like to hear.

A funky ring tone is a way to personalize your phone, and "it becomes a fashion accessory at that point," says James Ryan, vice president of data product management at Cingular, a joint venture between SBC Communications (nyse: SBC - news - people ) and BellSouth (nyse: BLS - news - people ). In addition, the strong beats of rap translate well to the high-pitched tones of cell phones. "Because of the very rhythmic nature of the music, it just serves itself very well in the form of ring tones," says Michael Gallelli, director of content acquisition at T-Mobile, the wireless arm of Deutsche Telekom (nyse: DT - news - people ).