Completely Free Ringtones

Free ringtones and ringtones sales don’t always reflect what’s going on in pop culture, but in certain events, mainly celebrity gossip and news, they do! Take our last articles about Michael Jackson ringtones spike after his death. Wireless and Mobile news posted some interesting stats to prove this theory, directly comparing sales to events such as T.I. going to jail, Fergie getting married and Chris Browns domestic issues. Check out the article for the full stats.

What do completely free ringtone have to do with your age? Well, not much, but we thought it was funny enough to share anyways. The Guardian published an amusing list which predicts what ringtones you will have based on your age. They might not be totally accurate but you might be surprised to see one you’ve got on the list. A couple samples: Under 11: Just Dance by Lady GaGa Ringtone, 14-20: Mosquito Ringtones, 25-30: Nickelback’s Rockstar Ringtone. Check out the full list with a little description for each one.

The IDC has predicted that ringbacks will overtake ringtones as the largest revenue source in mobile entertainment by 2010. Quite a statement, especially when Google reports search trends for free ringbacks is virtually non existent compared to search trends for free ringtones. Most people have no idea what a ringback even is, so let’s clear that up; a ringback is the sound you hear when calling someone, and mobile carriers have plans to allow music to replace this stale call tone. But will this really replace ringtones and even free ringtones as the most popular mobile entertainment? Companies such as RealNetwork are betting on it, and investing with mobile carriers to make ringbacks mainstream.

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, a music industry licensing group, is claiming that when a mobile phone plays a ringtone, that it is the same as a public performance by the artist, and they should be able to collect royalties from this “performance”. The ASCAP suggests that when a ringtone (even free ringtones) are loaded onto a mobile phone, it can be set off by an incoming call while the phone owner is in public where others could overhear the “performance”. They claim there is “no question” it meets the definition of a public performance under terms of the federal Copyright Act of 1976. The ruling is unlikely to pass with large wireless providers already filing against the ASCAP’s legal claims in court. One website has claimed the ASCAP is looking for as much as one thousand dollars per “performance”, retroactive to the first date of sale. How they plan to track such performances remains a mystery.