Artists ring up big sales with ringtones.
By Glenn Gamboa

Bow Wow, Dem Franchize Boyz, Bubba Sparxxx and Rick Ross picked up their latest gold and platinum awards from the Recording Industry Association of America at a ceremony at the Time Warner Center yesterday afternoon. But they didn't get traditional platinum records or even the newer platinum CD plaques. They got platinum cell phone plaques, marking the first awards from the RIAA for ringtone sales. "They are as important - maybe someday even more important - as gold and platinum record sales," said Billboard executive editor Tamara Conniff, adding that the magazine will start a chart for mastertone sales this summer. The RIAA handed out 128 awards yesterday, ranging from multiplatinum awards (for sales of more than 2 million ringtones) to D4L's "Laffy Taffy" and Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" to gold awards (sales of 500,000 ringtones) for unexpected cell phone faves Waylon Jennings' "Theme from 'The Dukes of Hazzard'" and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Mitch Bainwol, the RIAA's chairman and chief executive, said the gold and platinum designations for ringtones were "unthinkable" just four years ago. Today, however, with ringtone sales reaching about $600 million annually, Bainwol said, "It's an important new way for the industry to recognize a return on its investment in music."