Ringtone Industry Cashes In With The Teen Market

According to RealityTVWorld.com, today's teens are willing to substitute cell phone minutes for the latest ringtone. This behavior places this age group in the largest population of ringtone purchasers. Since over 40% of cell phone users fall into this group and have disposable income, the ringtone industry is making the most of this opportunity. The market is so large among this young population that, according to a study by Wireless World Forum, young people are spending eight times more on mobile phones than music. Currently, trends in the U.K. show that the ringtone market holds 10% of the total music market. This population's buying power is equally impressive in the United States where teenagers spend nearly as much on ringtones as on text messaging. The sale of ringtones worldwide adds up to $3.5 billion, according to IT Facts online (http://www.itfacts.biz).

The music industry isn't joyful about ringtones taking over the CD market sales-wise; the industry wants you to buy expensive CD before a cheap ringtone. Publishers or songwriters are still getting a royalty, but at a lesser percentage. Experts predict the mobile phone and ringtone industry to dip even farther into the music industry. Marriages of technology like iPods, which can hold more ringtones with longer versions and play with the clarity of a DVD, are expecting to enter the market soon.

While teenagers continue to enjoy downloading their favorite tunes off online sites or through their mobile phone, many ringtones are being handed out as freebees from their phone service. Neither do most teenagers mind exchanging their minutes for ringtones. Ringtones come in various sounds. Some sounds are full versions with or without tunes. Others are purely acoustic or synthesized versions of familiar tunes. A few are unique sounds all their own. Since only the latest technology mobile phones can handle the most recent ringtones, many teenagers are upgrading their phones to get this technology. If you want to know what the latest popular ringtones are among this group, you just have to check the top 10 music hits on the radio. However, remix sounds and original sounds are starting to make headway.

This age group will probably dominate the ringtone industry for some time to come. However, a new market of untapped but upcoming whiz kids (age 7 to 12) is anticipated to be targeted by some ringtone and cell phone suppliers. You can download some of the top ringtones at places like your phone service provider like Verizon Ringtones (http://www.3gUpload.com), Xingtone (http://www.xingtone.com), or Jamster (http://www.jamster.co.uk).

Copyright 2005 Samuel Mitone. All rights reserved.
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Samuel Mitone is the webmaster and operator of Fever Ringtones,Inc a premier resource for all the latest ringtones on the web. For further information please visit his archive of articles: http://www.feveringtones.com
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