Raising The Bar On Ringtones
Walk into any public place and you're bound to hear the chime of a ringing cellular phone. Those phones are singing new tunes, however, as monophonic ringers that imitate Beethoven's Fifth Symphony or sound strikingly similar to a chiming doorbell become a rarity. Replacing those generic tunes of yesterday are a bevy of more sophisticated sounds.

Today's cellular phone users are personalizing their ringers with high-quality song clips, celebrity voices, nostalgic noises such as old-fashioned bike bells, and familiar lines from movies or TV shows. Tomorrow's wireless subscribers likely will have animated ringtones tied to video clips, ringback tones personalized for incoming callers and the ability to download complete MP3-quality songs from a flock of artists.

These sophisticated sounds come at a price and a growing number of consumers are willing to pay for ringtone personalization. Sprint reported that in 2003 its customers downloaded 20 million ringtones and screensavers. In addition, a September 2003 Yankee Group Mobile User survey found that 18 percent of subscribers are somewhat or very interested in downloadable ringtones. That interest trends upward among the young adult (18- to 24-year-old) and teen (11- to 17-year-old) market where the Yankee Group survey found that 41 percent of young adults and 22 percent of teens download at least one ringtone per month.

Although operators decline to provide specifics on ringtone purchases, most report that ringtone buyers make repeat purchases. "Most people who download ringtones typically come back a couple times a month and buy more," says Denni Brueggemann, senior marketing manager for downloadable content and apps at Cingular Wireless. "It's part of the personalization of the phone."

Ringtone publishers and aggregators have their own projections for ringtone sales, with some estimating that ringtone sales in the United States will total as much as $150 million in 2004.

As downloads grow in volume, carriers and affiliated ringtone aggregators are aggressively searching for new content to fuel customer demand. The music industry, with its constant flow of new songs and albums, naturally fits into that front. "There is a built-in appeal from a usage perspective," says Jeff Hallock, vice president of product marketing at Sprint. "Music is constantly new and we can leverage that."