"There's only music so that there's new ringtones." - from "Certain Romance" by Arctic Monkeys
It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that people are going to go for the cheapest way possible to ironically purchase "Don't Stop Believing" as their ringtone, and now that providers like Amazon.com and iTunes offer entire songs at lower prices instead of people having to text a service for upwards of $5 a blip-bleep rendition, the music ringtone market is headed for its second consecutive year of declining sales.
According to the research firm IBISWorld, revenue of the music ringtone market has shrunk by 15% to $750 million from $880 million in 2007. The company's senior analyst, Toon van Beeck, doesn't expect the market for music ringtones to recover and grimly forecasts that the entire thing will be defunct by 2015.
“Mobile Phones are now truly wireless Internet devices and allow consumers to download full songs for ringtones rather than the 30-second versions available in the past,” said van Beeck. “Providers like iTunes and Amazon.com have revolutionized the way we buy and use music, driving consumers to hang-up on ringtones.”
[Hypebot]
