Celebrities getting into the ring tone act with pieces written just for cells.
It’s a middle-of-the-night moment that only artists can have.
Their muse descends from out of nowhere. They wake up abruptly. They feverishly run to the piano or guitar. They have a truly inspired musical concept – for a ring tone, destined to hit it big on cell phones around the world.
Could Elvis, the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix have ever imagined that this would be the American dream? They would now, say music industry observers.
Some artists – particularly those in the hip-hop genre – are being hired by so-called wireless record labels to create original music to be used as a ring tone, and a ring tone alone.
“The idea is to look at the cel lphone as a new format,” says Jonathon Dworkin, vice president of artists and repertoire for BlingTones, a pioneer in the field.
What is BlingTones?
BlingTones is essentially a ring tone company, with one difference – it signs artists to create exclusive 30-second “songs” for cell phones. Among the 30 hip-hop artists and producers on its roster are Q-Tip, Lil Jon, Rockwilder and Denaun Porter.
Prices, which are set by cell-phone carriers who have contracts with BlingTones to provide the music to customers, range from about $2 to $4 per exclusive song. Sprint, Cingular, Nextel and Boost Mobile are all onboard.
A 30-second snippet of music is not much, and Dworkin says such ring tones won’t be competing to replace the idea of a full song or CD.
Most are hip-hop pieces
The beat-driven, synthesized nature of hip-hop, in particular, lends itself to a ring tone format, Dworkin says: “There is something – I don’t want to say “mechanical’ – about it. But it grooves like crazy. There’s something about how it’s assembled that lends itself to this kind of delivery.”
That’s probably why 70 percent of all ring tones on the market today are from the hip-hop arena.
Growth in the ring tone business, as a whole, has been astonishing. In 2004, Americans spent about $150 million on ring tones, according to communications market research firm In-Stat/MDR. That’s compared with $80 million in 2003, which is four times what consumers spent in 2002.
Worldwide ring tone sales are expected to exceed $4 billion this year, according to Dworkin.
Thomas Dolby sound familiar?
Anyone remember Thomas Dolby, whose song “She Blinded Me With Science” reached No. 5 on the Billboard charts back in 1983? The one-hit wonder has started his own label, RetroRingTones LLC, for which he has written hundreds of digital polyphonic tunes.
It’s all just the tip of the iceberg in terms of original content delivered via cellphone.
Rob Thomas, the matchbox twenty singer who in April released a solo CD, plans to produce a video to be delivered exclusively via cell phone, according to Bruno. MTV, meanwhile, is producing what it terms a “ring tone album,” Bruno adds, which will essentially be a suite of exclusive ring tones.
And in March, Sprint launched “video ringers,” which allow customers to identify callers with clips of the latest music videos.
“Soon, you will have the ability to buy a whole song from your phone,” Bruno says. “That will happen by the end of this year. When that starts happening, artists will start coming out with their own branded phones. The phone will come with a bunch of content,” he says.
“The whole point of this is to be the cool one that has what no one else has. That’s from the consumer side. “This is cool because I can only get this through my phone.”‘
HOW TO BUY
To purchase BlingTones, go to the download menu of your cell phone, select “ring tones,” and then look for BlingTones. Or visit TheBlingTones.com. Service providers carrying BlingTones are Sprint, Cingular, Nextel and Boost Mobile.
Here are the artists and producers who have signed with BlingTones to create original “songs” exclusively for use as ring tones (some currently have ring tones available; others are in the pipeline):
– Lil Jon
– Q-Tip
– Doug E Fresh
– Allstar
– Alex G
– Boola
– Bryan Palmer
– Chris Sholar
– Chuckie Thompson
– Dave Kelly
– DJ Scratch
– DJ Twinz
– Dre and Vidal
– GoodandEvil
– Hi-Tek
– jake1
– JayDee
– Khari
– Kon Artis
– Kyze
– Leroy Romans
– LES
– MIDI Mafia
– Rockwilder
– Salaam Remi
– Scram Jones
– Souldiggaz
– SPK
– Tony Kelly
– Vitamin D
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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099).
AP-NY-08-31-05 1625EDTHOW TO BUY
To purchase BlingTones, go to the download menu of your cell phone, select “ring tones,” and then look for BlingTones. Or visit TheBlingTones.com. Service providers carrying BlingTones are Sprint, Cingular, Nextel and Boost Mobile.
Here are the artists and producers who have signed with BlingTones to create original “songs” exclusively for use as ring tones (some currently have tones available; others are in the works) :
Lil Jon
Q-Tip
Doug E Fresh
Allstar
Alex G
Boola
Bryan Palmer
Chris Sholar
Chuckie Thompson
Dave Kelly
DJ Scratch
DJ Twinz
Dre and Vidal
GoodandEvil
Hi-Tek
jake1
JayDee
Khari
Kon Artis
Kyze
Leroy Romans
LES
MIDI Mafia
Rockwilder
Salaam Remi
Scram Jones
Souldiggaz
SPK
Tony Kelly
Vitamin D
-www.northjersey.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
—–
TO SUBSCRIBE TO PLUGGED IN
Items in the Plugged In package are not included in your KRT News Service subscription. You can subscribe to the Plugged In package or purchase the items a la carte on KRT Direct at www.krtdirect.com. To subscribe, please call Rick DeChantal at Tribune Media Services at (800) 245-6536 or rdechantaltribune.com. Outside the United States, call Tribune Media Services International at +1-213-237-7987 or e-mail tmsitribune.com.
—
PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099).
AP-NY-08-31-05 1625EDT
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