Crazy Frog is for the high jump, say ringtone experts
By Dominic White

Britain's mobile phone ringtone boom has come to an end, according to both a leading market research group and the world's biggest music company. Propelled by the unlikely success of ''tunes" such as the Crazy Frog, the UK ringtone download market grew more than 500pc to £177m between 2000 and 2005.


Crazy Frog: For the high jump?


However, industry watcher MusicAlly predicts that the ringtone market will shrink almost 20pc this year - the first ever fall. It forecasts that within four years, turnover will be just £78m, less than half last year's total.

The research was borne out by comments yesterday from Universal Music UK, which admitted it had seen its first decline in revenue from ringtones over the past six months. Ringtone revenue growth had raised hopes both for mobile operators - struggling to make a return on investments in 3G - and for record companies, in their efforts to offset falling revenues caused by piracy.

Both Universal and MusicAlly said last year's controversy surrounding hidden subscription charges for certain ringtone services was partly to blame.

The furore resulted in one provider, MBlox, being fined £40,000 by premium rate telephone service watchdog ICSTIS, and being forced to refund 338 complainants. ICSTIS's annual report reveals that the number of complaints about mobile subscription services, which peaked at 1,200 in June 2005, had fallen to just 200 by March this year.

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Steve Mayall, of MusicAlly, said another reason for the ringtone decline was the growing ease with which people could ''sideload" songs from a computer to a mobile at no cost.