Ringing in the new: ringtones and the music licensing biz

Xeni Jardin 8:33 pm Wed Jun 11, 2003

I wrote a feature for this month's issue of Grammy Magazine on the changing business of mobile phone ringtones:

Still considered an emerging trend in Japan, Wav-based ringtones of actual song clips, called Chaku-uta, are hayatteru ("totally trendy") with the under-30 crowd. Chaku-goe, ("voice,") is "another popular type of ringtone," says Collier, "and this can be either pure voice — such as a celebrity saying, 'Answer the phone' — or a blend of music and speech, like a Beatles melody with the spoken words 'Come on' popping up during the chorus."
Roughly 80 percent of the ringtones in Japan are Japanese songs, and J-Pop (Japanese pop music) rules the ringtone charts, according to mobile entertainment executive Kunito Komori of Yokohama, Japan. "There are also some interesting niche services in Japan," says Komori, "like all-indie-band songs, all-rock, or audiophile ringtones" — high-quality files produced by best-of-the-best specialists.

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