Ringtone market more than just hot air

Young people are using mobile phones for everything from sending e-mails to playing games, and thousands are even turning to the Web to transform their phones into high-tech "whoopie cushions".

"After offering various sound effects, it became clear our audience was very young and that a lot of young guys loved ... stuff like bodily functions," said Cindy Lundin Mesaros, a spokeswoman for Faith Inc.'s 4295.T Modtones unit, a ringtone provider for Verizon Wireless VZ.N.

Whoopie cushions aside, the business of selling ringtones -- or musical jingles that can personalize a mobile phone -- is proving to be more than just a lot of hot air.

The market has already topped $1 billion globally and has been all the rage in Europe and Asia for several years. Sales in the United States are just igniting, with young people leading the charge.

Mesaros said thousands of customers have already downloaded ringtones mimicking flatulence since Modtones began offering them three weeks ago.

"It's pretty impressive, considering there was no promotion and no press," she said. "You stick it underneath someone's chair and dial your own number and it's a remote-controlled whoopie cushion."

Modtones (http://www.modtones.com) provides software enabling customers to download ringtones right on their phones, while many others provide ringtones for about $1 to $2 via Web sites at (http://www.moviso.com), (http://www.yourmobile.com), (http://www.zingy.com) and (http://www.ringtones.com).

Ringtones are also available on Web sites of wireless carriers, Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT.O MSN service or America Online's mobile-download centre.

The ringtone market is also giving a little boost to the embattled music industry as it grapples with declining CD sales.

Shortened versions of songs from artists ranging from Carlos Santana to Ricky Martin are being rigged into ringtones on mobile phones, translating into big music publishing revenues, according to industry experts.

IDC Research estimates that ringtone sales were almost $17 million in 2002 and will jump to more than $400 million by 2005. Music insiders estimate music publishers will make $50 million to $70 million from licensing for ringtones in 2003.

Several big record labels are jumping on the trend. AOL Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.N Warner Music signed a deal with Sprint Corp. FON.N to offer a music clip subscription service in one of many joint ventures that have the industry buzzing.

Ringtone provider Moviso also recently announced plans to sell celebrity ringtones so that Star Trek fans, for instance, can hear the voice of William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk, heralding an incoming call.

Many companies are now expanding into polyphonic ringtones, which are more musical because they can record a variety of notes, and are preparing for the day when full songs can be played on cellphones.

One tiny ringtone company, Xingtone (http://www.xingtone.com/), said it developed a model that lets consumers get games and music on their cellphones independent of mobile phone carriers.

Xingtone said users just pick a clip of a song they own, upload it through a downloadable application it has developed and then deliver it to their phones.

"The service offers game developers, audio publishers, music labels and artists the opportunity to deliver content over wireless networks without giving up 50 percent or more of their royalties to wireless carriers, as is customary in today's market," Xingtone Chief Executive Brad Zutaut said.

He said phones made by Sanyo and Samsung on the Sprint PCS network already enable users to add MP3 songs to their handsets and more phones will soon be compatible.

Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless, said Verizon has in the past blocked its customers from getting downloads for their phones without their backing.

"There have been many companies who have attempted to provide free downloads and we block our customers technologically from downloading them onto their devices because at that point we cannot protect against viruses or anything that would harm their services or phones," he said.