Going ga-ga over mobile phone ringtones.

YOU can have Les Ketchup or Eminem ringing your phone all day long. If international artistes are not your cup of tea, you can wind up listening to a tune from Siti Nurhaliza's hit songs or the local group Les Sekinchan. And especially for the diehard Bollywood fans, there's certainly an ample list of catchy tunes to choose from.

Ringtones, those ubiquitous, monophonic song recordings programmed into seemingly everyone's mobile phone, especially teenagers, are quietly becoming a money-maker for the music industry.

A new study released last week by London-based Informa Media Group said authors' collection societies collected US$71 million (RM269.8 million) in royalties from ringtone sales in 2002, up 58 per cent from the previous year.

According to the company, royalties figure, which is typically 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the total sales from ringtones, would suggest that the overall market is over US$700 million annually, and quite possibly as high as US$1 billion! Well, at times like this, when people in the recorded music industry are complaining about falling sales revenues as a result of rampant online piracy and CD-copying, the buoyant ringtone industry certainly provides some measure of cheers.

The market certainly looks bright, especially with state-of-the-art teenagers preferring downloadable ringtones instead of the drab, predictable built-in ones offered by most manufacturers.

Talking about built-in ringtones, I recently got hold of a new handphone, which comes with such a feature, ranging from familiar tunes like the sound of a bird or a doorbell, to some funny ones like a frog croaking or a witch laughing.

I find the witch laughing ringtone quite cool. It gives out an eerie laughter, which can be quite scary if you happen to receive a call in the middle of the night. Now, doesn't that sound fun? I think I'm going to stick with this ringtone for quite some a while.