Grigoriy Anoshenko asked:


Mobile phone ring tones have undergone a metamorphosis of sorts and its incessant evolutions have always ensured that they hog reams of newsprint and web space. In an attempt to live up to its reputation the media have time and again been successful in glorifying the status of these mobile phone ‘must haves’ and the sources through which they can be acquired.

Several websites have been dedicated to this technological innovation, with websites offering pre - composed ring tones of famous tracks along with an opportunity for the users to compose their own tracks with the help of user friendly software available at almost a negligible cost. Certain softwares that attempt to offer more creative freedom to the users allow for carefully slicing certain portions of sound tracks desired as ring tones, thereby making them compatible to download as ring tones on to the mobile devices.

Mobile phone ring tones from websites can be downloaded using wireless technologies such as WAP, GPRS, Bluetooth, Infra - red, et al for a nominal cost. Downloads through mobile phone operators usually come at a slightly higher cost and are more often than not a rude surprise especially to parents who are footing the bill for their teenagers’ phones. As per several recent reports there have been several cases in the consumer courts of the world of the terms and conditions imprints being too fine and therefore being overlooked by children and teenagers who have only too happily jumped on to the bandwagon of downloading the latest mobile phone ring tones from easily accessible sources. And this is more so when they are initially misled to believe that the ring tone(s) are going to cost them just a small amount, whilst the marketers have carefully hidden the fact that in an attempt to download a ring tone even once, the young consumers are actually entering into a monthly subscription contract. This is just one of the signs of children and teenager’s donning the role of aggressive consumers. Add to this the fact that opportunist mobile phone manufacturers are tapping into the latent needs of this relatively untargeted group to promote their handsets with the latest technological services bundled. The hype created by the marketers themselves around mobile phone ring tones, only adds to this group’s fascination of the ring tone.

Researchers and tracking experts have touted festive seasons, in particular, an interesting period for the marketing of ring tones for children. Some of the all time favorite ring tones during the festive season, as reported, are Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells, Holy Night, Frosty the Snowman, et al. What’s more, children opt for remixed and rock versions of these famous songs so as to aptly meet their tastes.

Mobile phone ring tones have off lately also emerged as a strong promotional tool for marketers of products, services, and entertainment. Producers of movies targeted at children and teenagers, along with their OST’s release, also make freely available specifically composed mobile phone ring tones of the film’s popular soundtracks. By ensuring that their target audience has an easy access to these ring tones, they are only making sure that there is no wastage of message by communicating directly with their audience. Children, as per reports, have known to have taken very well to the ring tones of Mickey Mouse and the Gang, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Pixar, et al.

With parents being non - hesitant about giving their children mobile phone handsets, and marketers and web site promoters making sure they overcome every hurdle to reach their little audiences, there is an urgent need for a regulatory body to step in to the scene to guide these young consumers and prevent them from being misguided.

Christopher Tang asked:


Ringtones have been around for as long as mobile phones. At a functional level they help owners in distinguishing their phone from others’ when they begin to ring. Of late though, having ringtones is also a way of expressing one’s personality. Service providers and handsets also allow users to set different ringtones for different callers, so they are also ways associating to someone else.

Depending on the kind of handset one uses, one can have ringtones that are

1. Monophonic - which means only one note is played.

2. Polyphonic - Which means multiple notes are played together to create a melody.

3. True Type - Actually songs that can be set as ringtones. Mobile ringtones often come in-built with the handset.

Different handsets have different systems for encoding ringtones. The most common way of programming a mobile ringtone is via a language called Ring Tone Text Transfer Language. If the handset is so equipped, one can download ringtones or even transfer them from other phones or websites. Service providers also offer ringtones at a certain charge. They send ringtones onto your handset via SMS. Some phones also have the facility of recording a particular track or sound and then setting it as a ringtone.

Mobile ringtones are big business. Consider the number of mobile phone users. Almost all of them want new ringtones or keep changing their ringtones once in a while. Nokia sells about 160 million phones annually only in the US. Every phone has at least about 10 in-built ringtones. Ringtone makers charge about $2-3 per ringtone. When calculated, the figure is enormous, and this is only in the US. Apart from the revenues, mobile ringtones are also great marketing tools. Almost any popular song or movie is marketed via an ‘exclusive ringtone’ for consumers. It has become mandatory for a song or movie to have a ringtone so that it can target customers even on their mobile.

The importance of mobile ringtones comes not so much from its functionality. Its function after all is just to tell you that someone is calling. Even a beep would be more than enough. However, cell phones today are becoming indispensable. One might forget his/her keys or wallet and can still stay relaxed, but forgetting his/her cell phone is like pressing the panic button. With users relying and identifying so much with their cell phones, there is a desire to personalize them. Make it ‘theirs’. Give the phone their identity. Mobile ringtones make this possible. Hence they are such a craze.

At times though, mobile ringtones can be quite a turn off - Especially the really noisy ones. Ringtones going off at the most inappropriate places like hospitals, classrooms, theatres is also very irritating. Users at times tend to select the noisiest tones and keep them on full volume to attract attention and unwanted stares. Another annoyance is service providers constantly calling you to offer more ringtones than you need. Fun does not remain fun when others are inconvenienced by it. This is where ringtones cross the line. Otherwise they offer great fun to everyone - users, ringtone makers and service providers. More Ringtone Download Please visit http://www.musicsmania.com/

Grigoriy Anoshenko asked:


It’s been only a decade since they came into existence, but with the way mobile phone ring tones are continuing unabated, to leave their signature tunes all across the globe; they seem to be anything but just a fad.

Having started off in its most basic and crudest form in Finland, mobile phone ring tones today, according to reports, are generating more than $ 4 billion in annual worldwide revenues. And with the up gradation of technology at their disposal mobile phone ring tones are being constantly morphed into an exciting ‘new’ rage day in and day out.

As per reports, the Asian market by far remains within the strong hold of novel mobile phone ring tones for several reasons. South - East Asian music artistes, enjoy immense popularity in their home countries largely owing to the fact that they are non - English speaking nations and therefore their audiences are restricted to those within their home country and the relatively small Diaspora spread across the globe. With ’sing tones’ having been touted as the latest avatar of ring tones, these have undoubtedly found a large fan following in countries such as Japan, which according to researchers is supposed to be the land of origin for Karaoke. Sing tones allow the user to record his or her voice to a popular soundtrack and tune in automatically to sound good with the help of available software. This can later be downloaded onto the user’s mobile phone and then subsequently shared with others.

India, in the South - Asian sub - continent, is home to the burgeoning Bollywood industry and only naturally lends itself to being an extremely lucrative opportunity for mobile phone ring tones downloads. Experts say that the market for value added services for mobile phones stands at $125 million and in itself accounts for about 20 per cent of the revenue earned by mobile phone operators. Within this value added services segment, ring tones account for roughly 80 per cent of the segment, thereby being the largest player. Along with the popular Bollywood movies’ sound tracks, there are several other budding artistes whose compositions are a favourite for mobile phone ring tones. These artistes along with the music composers for Bollywood films have taken to specifically composing ring tones for mobile phones and there is enough and more debate with regards to the demand of these professionals for an additional payment of fees for composing ring tones and licensing them to mobile phone operators. The widespread Indian Diaspora are also made available these ring tones through licensing arrangements made by the producers with off - shore distributors for an already agreed upon fee. Industry experts peg this profit share on a 50 - 50 basis largely. Although India is not an English speaking nation, the only advantage it has against its South - East Asian counterparts is that with the popularity of the Bollywood industry lot of United Kingdom based artistes such as Dr. Dre, Rishi Rich, Sean, et al have taken to incorporating snippets of some famous tracks into their compositions thereby leading to its widespread presence and acceptance.

Speaking of United Kingdom that seems to be another region that experts say is a popular hot spot for mobile phone ring tones, with the trend of ring tone DJ’s seriously catching up with its inhabitants. Not to mention the presence of local awards for the best ring tone compositions and the equivalent of ‘Top Ten Chartbusters’ list. Now, that is one country that surely has a lot of music artistes and ring tone composers humming all the way to the bank!

Carmelita Moore asked:


The mobile market has been booming these past few years. All over the world, millions of people have embraced the mobile world into their life. Most of them are into it so much that they can not imagine going out of the house without their cell phones with them. Part of the fun of having a cell phone today is that you can upload all sorts of interesting mobile ringtones. You can use these cell phone ringtones for sounding when you have an inbound call, to let you know when you have an audio message, and also when you receive an instant message as well.

Many inexperienced Ringtone users may be overwhelmed by the technical jargon they encounter when trying to purchase or use a new Ringtone. Terms such as monophonic and polyphonic ringtones, MP3 ringtones or baud rate and the like are enough to shake many non-technophiles. But in general it’s not that hard and the different Ringtones can be broken down to three different kinds that are in operation now:

1. Polyphonic ring tones make use of multiple tones that are played simultaneously with the instrumental sounds created by guitars, drums, violins, pianos, cymbals and more. This creates a harmonious sound that you will never hear from a monotone. Polyphonic ringtones are able to much more accurately reproduce complex sounds than previous technologies, and, for this reason, phones that can handle polyphonic ringtones are much more popular thantheir monophonic rivals.

2. Real Music ringtones or MP3 Ringtones, are ringtones that came from “real” or actual songs. They use original pieces of music along with lyrics, exactly as the original recording. The format is usually MP3, WAV, WMA, etc. This feature and support for real music ringtones is being built into most new models of almost all mobile phone manufacturers. Real Music Ringtones are also called true tones, real tones, voice tones, full music or MP3 ringtones.

3. Monophonic is the simplest of ringtone technology that uses a MIDI format. This one note wonder changed ringtones and no more would you hear simple chirps and chimes, but rather, you could play a popular song. A single note playing a song resembles a monophonic ringtone sound. You can recognize your favorite song, but it sounds a little off, because there is not that much control with a single tone format.

Ringtones are available in various forms. One of the reasons why personalized ringtones are enjoying such an immense popularity all over the world is because of the ability to actually bring your personality to your phone. With personalized ringtones you can immediately show to other people what kind of person you are the moment they hear your ringtone. If you are the goofy type of person then you’d have one of those funny songs, a hilarious joke or a funny sound effect as your ring tone. If you are the romantic type then love songs would usually be your ringtone. The adventurous people may select rock or techno music as their ringtones. Of course, anime fans will definitely get anime theme songs as their ringtones. There are endless possibilities on how to customize your cell phone. You can download ringtones, compose them or even buy them on various websites. No matter what your personal taste could be, there is definitely already a ringtone for it.

Grigoriy Anoshenko asked:


A closer look at the recent trends within the mobile phone industry reveals the concentrated efforts of manufacturers and content providers alike to consistently develop products and services to specifically cater to the female segment. Motorola’s most stylish offering the MotoRazr and the subsequent others in the series have been packaged and promoted in a manner that would undoubtedly attract the female attention. Handset casings of colors such as metallic pink, and deep purple (in the case of Sony Ericson); clearly make a statement of the audience they are trying to reach out to. It is also worth nothing that such handsets are promoted as limited edition pieces, and made available only in certain markets across the world that are known to have extremely fashion conscious women consumers.

This brings us to discuss the case in point of women consumers’ preferences when it comes to mobile phone handsets and their need for the same. Although a recent research carried out in the United Kingdom reveals that close to 60 per cent of women claim to be unable to live without their mobile phones; in spite of the repeated aggressive efforts of marketers their usage of the mobile phones’ value added services is very low. What is it then that women use their mobile phones so frequently for? The answer seems to lie in the fact that women are believed to, contrary to popular belief, use their handsets mainly for the most basic and much needed functions such as making and receiving calls, and text messaging.

Probing a little further into understanding their usage of additional value added services, it has been revealed by the recent reports, that approximately 60 per cent of women are likely to send picture messages, and a fair proportionate of women roughly being around 50 per cent, download mobile phone ring tones often. And what is it that this very obviously hard to please group likes to download? Several researchers have closely studied the demographics and psychographics of this segment to understand what their preferences might be like. Studies show that working women with a family, traveling over long distances prefer to make use of that time socializing over the phone with their friends and family. This extremely pressed for time target group is more likely to indulge in making a list of their chores, shopping list, et al. True to their tastes, it is more likely that they will have a mobile phone ring tone that reflects their personal choices more than their personality. This can be explained further by quoting examples of their choice of viewing on the tube which could be Desperate Housewives, CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, et al, and therefore it wouldn’t be a surprise if their mobile phone ring tones are soundtracks of these television programs. Likewise they are also more likely to download the OST ring tones of movies that appeal to their senses, and probably deal with their real life problems, than the ring tone of Shrek 3. They are also more likely to have a common ring tone for all their callers and one that is loud and clear.

Another segment within the female target audience, a slightly younger generation that is working or/and at university is more likely to go in for a mobile phone ring tone that reflects their personality and helps them to make a style statement to their peers and colleagues. It is extremely important for this generation to make a mark for themselves and stand out in the crowd. Hip - hop, according to experts, is the unanimous choice for this group, followed by rock. Recent reports have declared Singtones emerging as an extremely popular preference for this group, owing to this group’s willingness to experiment with novelty.

Women, out of habit, are undoubtedly enjoying all the attention, but what remains to be seen is to what extent the manufacturers would go to woo these ladies and encourage their indulgence in the value added services that would mean more revenue for them.