Cell Phone Ringtones Give Music Industry Another Headache

Alien54 writes "Xingtone's desktop software allows you to create mobile phone ringtones using digital audio files on your computer. As seen here, The software evokes the same ``oh wow, oh no'' reaction from the labels that greeted the original Napster. The fear is that people will make 30 second long ringtones out of popular songs, thus compounding the file-sharing problem while robbing the music industry of a new source of revenue. Many users find the technology quite cool. IANAL, but current copyright guidelines seem to permit fair use of "Up to 10% of a body of sound recording, but no more than 30 seconds". All of which should make for an interesting legal debate. I can hear the gnashing of teeth already."

Comments

am I missing something here?

[tuxette]

The fear is that people will make 30 second long ringtones out of popular songs

I don't know if they last 30 seconds, but ring tones of popular songs already exist, at least in Norway/Europe. It has existed for a quite some time, at least 5 years if not more.

Ringtones? We've had them for years now!

[Anonymous Coward]

Far from worrying here in the UK music ring tones are popular in the UK. People are willing to pay 1.50 (or more) for a ring tone, yet are not willing to pay that much for a single this has a few analysts baffled. It's probably all convenience, anyone can copy a single from the radio, from a friends CD, download it from the net etc.. but getting ringtones on a mobile phone is a bit more complex for the average person. As a result people are willing to pay for them.

It's not uncommon now to see adverts on peak time TV for ring tone services where you text a number with the name of a song, and you'll receive that ring tone.

A few people have made millions of pounds from these services. There not hush-hush services either, a few of these people have even been the subjects of BBC Documentaries.

Channel 4 even allow you to download ring tones from their site - http://www.channel4.com/mobile/

With Cellphones Europe seems to be ahead of the the game compaired the US. Japan on the other hand are ahead of Europe with 3G phones!

Music Industry

[smoondog]

This week on Frontline, arguably the best show on television, is titled, "The way the music died." It looks fascinating and, perhaps, even balanced. I do hope the bottom line is, however, that the music industry is a dated industry that refuses (due to some dumb executives) to adapt.

-Sean

Submitter is missing context

[DanTilkin]

The submitter claims IANAL, but current copyright guidelines seem to permit fair use of "Up to 10% of a body of sound recording, but no more than 30 seconds".

The submitter is missing the context of the part of the document he referenced. The 10%/30 seconds guideline is meant to clarify what portions of referenced works means in the top of the document. There is no fair use when the only purpose is your own enjoyment.

Whether owning the CD gives you the right to use this is a seperate question, but there the 10%/30 seconds rule doesn't apply.

Re:Submitter is missing context

[curator_thew]

> There is no fair use when the only purpose is your own enjoyment.

Crap. You clearly don't understand "fair use".

There is no absolute rule for "fair use", the 10%/30 rule is basically a thumb in the air.

The problem is far more complex than this, and difficult to construct an answer here.

Re:We don't protect business models from other one

[goon america]

Dude, ring tones brought in $3.5 billion last year (believe it or not), that's 10% of the global music market revenue.

I'm not suggesting that makes an ounce of sense, but it's certainly not chump change here.

Sprint PCS users can make WAV ringtones for free

[__roo]

It's very easy to turn sample files into ringtones for free. For Sprint PCS users, the Xingtone software just creates a GCD file (more info) and hosts is on a website for your phone to download. It converts the WAV file to Qualcomm PureVoice (.QCP) format (which you can do using Qualcomm's free converter for Windows and Linux). There's more info here.

Death of Ringtone Sales

[Spolster]

My current phone allows me to use any mp3 as a ringtone, no conversion necessary. As far as I can tell this is becoming more and more common on new phones. With more and more phones and computers supporting bluetooth it's also getting easier to transfer them onto the phone. Eventually it's going to become convienient enough that people won't be willing to pay to be sent ringtones when they could just use music they already own.

Re:Great.

[jpetts]

That is perhaps because you can only just hear the bass from the outside for the most part.

Unless, of course, the asshat in question has the windows down (45th St in Ballard, yesterday, ~2pm), or is driving a ragtop (6th Avenue, Seattle, yesterday, ~5pm). Then you get to hear all the frequencies. Don't forget that a lot of these idiots WANT you to hear how cool their musical taste is...