Wait, wait, wait. $US2.1 billion worth of ringtones were sold this year? Who still buys these things? Why? I thought we all had our phones permanently set to silent. $US2.1 BILLION?!
Peter Kafka used the Gartner stat in an All Things D post to highlight the slow rate at which we’re all buying digital music and how digital sales won’t replace CD sales for quite some time.
The fact that ringtones currently represent a third of all digital music sales and is projected to still make up nearly 20 per cent of sales in 2015 is enough to make me wanna drive my head into a wall. Especially when you can make any MP3 you already own a ringtone for free. Plus, songs as ringtones are never good. They’re shrill and distorted and noone actually knows what the song is when a phone rings. I’d rather listen to that iPhone ringtone of that dog barking. Wait, I already do. [All Things D]
Dave
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 10:06 AMi get mine from audiko.net Beats paying for the rubbish ones.
Nicholas
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 10:21 AMIntel sound for messages, GTA4 theme for ringtone. Courtesy of Mobile9.com, but I’m guessing there are plenty of sites out there.
Andrew
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 6:05 PMGameboy startup sound for messages ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et0lL-4FuMo
…but yeah, I was tempted by the intel sound.
Pro tip: Never put a song that you like as a ringtone. You will ruin it forever.. and you’ll also have an after effect when for years later, every time you hear the song you get the impulse to look for your phone.
MotorMouth
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 10:36 AMI’m sure the same people buy ringtones now who always did – young kids.
Sicarius123
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 12:24 PMYoung kids have no money and are computer/piracy savvy.
I think you mean middle aged or elderly computer illiterate people.
warcroft
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 7:42 PMNo, young kids whos parents pay for the bills.
Mitch
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 10:58 AMDamn that Crazy Frog to hell!
Axe
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 11:11 AMwho has their phone set constantly to silent? probably the same morons that never answer their phones, cause they didn’t hear it ring
Steve
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 11:22 AMWhat does this have to do with $2.1 billion spent on ringtones?
I happen to use silent more often than not, because I’m usually in situations where it’s a faux pas or plain unprofessional for your phone to go off. Not everyone in this world is compelled to be at your beck and call, you know.
Sam D
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 12:06 PMMy phone lives in my pocket. Vibrate is more than enough for me, so it lives on silent.
iPhoney
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 11:55 AMI would suggest that most people consider their ringtome a charming and quirky expression of their individuality.
Those people are wrong.
However, nothing says “I’m a seflish, self-absorbed, simpleton douchebag” like a tinny, over-loud rendition of “I’ll give you boom boom pow, I caught you jackin’ my cow”.
Sicarius123
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 12:25 PMI’d say most people don’t want to walk through a shopping mall and check their phone every time the default iPhone ring tone goes off, so set a personal ring tone instead.
Cam
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 12:25 PMMy sister bought a ringtone. I said I could have done the same thing for her, for free. Her response? It was $2, less than a cup of coffee, and it was on her phone 10 seconds after the initial thought of the song she just heard as a ringtone.
$2 is nothing in this day and age. I’d bet a $0.99 game (angry birds/bejeweled/etc) generates more revenue than a lot of $99 games for an xbox/ps3/wii purely through the fact that people will spend $0.99 without much thought because it is just 99 cents.
InformedGamer
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 3:21 PMA lot of those “$99 games for an xbox/ps3/wii” sell over 10 million copies.
Since Angry Birds has only sold 12 million, you owe me a $0.99 game. Thank you kind sir
warcroft
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 7:43 PMhttp://www.zedge.net
Is all you need to know.
Kendal
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 8:20 PM20 years ago, if you asked anyone what a ringtone was, they would have said brown.
james
Saturday, November 12, 2011 at 12:48 AMgold.
Gibbo McCool
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 9:22 PMRingdroid works a treat!