Real Tones Dominate Ring Tone Sales, While Ringback Tone Sales Rise

Some 24.6 million U.S. consumers bought a ring tone in the second quarter of 2006, and they showed a clear preference for so-called real tones, or master tones, over polyphonic and mono ring tones, according to research released today. Ring tones for mobile phones, which are snippets of popular songs, have been heavily marketed by the wireless carriers to indicate incoming calls and sell for anywhere from $1 to $3 each. They remain one of the largest categories of digital content for micropayments while also representing a major market for m-commerce. According to a new report from San Francisco-based research firm Telephia Inc., real tones accounted for 76.4% of U.S. consumer spending on ring tones in the three-month period through June 30, compared to 62.4% in the third quarter of last year. Mono and polyphonic tones, meanwhile, dropped to 12% of spending from 29.6%. Also on the rise is the ringback tone, the music that cellular callers hear when they dial a number. Spending on these bits of music rose to 11.5% of total sales from 7.7%, the report says. “It's no surprise that mono and polyphonic ring tones have fallen out of favor with mobile consumers, as real tones are a far superior format, much like how CDs replaced cassette tapes,” said Kanishka Agarwal, a vice president at Telephia, in a statement. “This is all part of the broader shift toward consumers expecting their mobile devices to deliver a high-quality portable music experience.” According to Broadcast Music Inc., a performing-rights organization, U.S. ring-tone sales will hit $600 million in 2006, up from $500 million last year. Worldwide, ring tones account for 81% of $6.7 billion in mobile music sales, according to Juniper Research, a U.K.-based firm, though Juniper expects that share to drop to 51% by 2011, when the total market will hit $14.1 billion. In the U.S., there are now 217.4 million cell-phone users, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), a wireless trade group, indicating that just over 11% are currently downloading ring tones. Telephia's ring-tone data are drawn from the on-portal sales of the four largest carriers, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Cingular.