Ringtone business

Curious about legal & business aspects of this growing industry.

[hfwd]

I'm curious if anyone has any experience in the ringtone industry - it seems like a booming sector.

What's involved in setting a ringtone website? I assume it's quite different from your usual e-commerce sites (what's required to send the ringtone to cellphones?).

Also what's the source of the ringtone itself? How do you get licensing (I assume you need that...).

Is the barrier of entry high for this business?

Thanks!

[otc_cmnn]

This business is past its prime and will cease to exist in a few years.

Phones are becoming higher tech, MP3 enabled, music, PDA, all in one devices. Cheesy - de-do-de-doop-de-do-de-doop - will sound as funny to us as the clank-clank-clank of a rotary phone.

Sorry buddy, you missed the boat on this one.

But if you insist, there are many existing sites that will like you resell for them or co-brand a white label site. Don't reinvent the wheel, just team up with someone alredy doing it.

[hfwd]

Maybe so. I only know that the state of cell phone technology in the US is far below that of Asian & European countries.

Many people here still have non-polyphonic cell phones, though I confess I know little about the state of the industry. Also, I'm too old to be hip about these new fangled cell phones.

Thanks for the heads up.

[philbish]

swim faster, and catch the boat

[julesn]

Ringtones alone may be saturated in some areas, the UK for instance, but they keep coming up with new services to send to the more advanced handsets (games, applications, movies, full tracks), and there is still *lots* of mileage in anything that provides a chargeable service to a mobile phone..

And there are lots of developing markets where the local technology is a few years behind the UK - so someone in a developing market with local knowledge would do well to partner with a company that has already developed the technology platform to bring services to new areas.

In the UK at least Jamster offer a "white label" ringtone service and have the market pretty much sewn up.

jules.

[hfwd]

I was thinking of the US, specifically. I think the market is still wide open here, since cell phone technology is way behind the UK (or even some Asian) countries.

[Steelbank]

anyone have a site to partner up with to resell the ringtones?

[Musicarl]

I use Mediaplazza. They're real good with customer service, but they recently lowered their payouts so you might not be happy there. They also offer wallpapers and other cell phone goodies.

If anyone has any thought on other ringtone providers, I'd like to hear them as well.