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U.S. ringtone revenue this year will reach about $750 million, down from $881 million in 2007 — and the business will be nonexistent in 2016, says IBIS World, a consumer analyst group. A big reason consumers are eschewing personalized ringtones? Cellphones simply don't ring as much as they used to.
[brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com...]
Still, all the news is not good...
The ringback tone (a song that plays for inbound callers instead of a ringing signal) has seen tremendous growth. Ringback revenue has more than doubled since 2005, and it brought in almost $200 million for music labels last year, according to analyst group SNL Kagan.
I had a builder who put a "ringback" on his cellphone. I would call to find out what the heck was going on, but, reminding myself to be professional, kind. Then his phone inflicted some loud county music piece of junk on me as it rang and, so, when he answered, I was in a "different" frame of mind...
Cellphones simply don't ring as much as they used to.
What the heck do they mean by that?
1. I don't need to remember to turn it off in restaurants or at work, because it will never disturb anyone
2. If I'm having a conversation with someone face-to-face and my phone rings, I can just ignore it and they are none the wiser. Having a loud noise blast out from my pocket will interrupt anything, regardless of whether I'm answering it, it is still an interruption.
So yes. End of ringtones should be the way forward.
However, I'm impressed by the size of the market. $750m in the US - I wouldn't say no to that.
By 2016 it'll be REALLY easy to do and every phone will have the capability to play high quality music, if it doesn't already. Why buy what you can make for free?
