Major Rap record labels are generating high revenues from the sales of ringtones to mobile phone users. Most of these count on the sales to offset the sinking CD sales. It costs around 2-3 dollars to purchase ringtones. The rap ringtones can either be snippets usually cut from the part in the song that seems to have the funkiest beat, memorable rhyme, catch phrases or even the chorus. Let’s hear what music review experts have to say concerning the sale of rap ringtones.
In an interview on the New York Post, Amanda Marks commented that sales of rap ringtones are yet to hit the ceiling. Amanda is the Executive vice president and General Manager of digital distribution for Universal Music Group Distribution. She further hinted that they will allow consumers to listen to a preview of the songs before they buy them as an incentive to boost ringtone sales.
2005 will go down in history as the year ringtone downloads became a blast. Can you imagine a whooping $600 million in sales? Back then it was 50 cent’s “Candy shop” ringtone that was the most popular with 1.9 million mobile downloads. These sales figures made Edna Gundersten from USA TODAY exclaim that “ringtone sales are off the hook!”
Many people will assume polyphonic ringtones are no longer popular now that we can download Mp3 ringtones. But Antony Bruno, Billboard Digital Mobile editor differs. He explains that for rap and hip hop songs their beats sound good on polyphonic unlike other genres. Most of these downloads are done for fun by teens and kids. After all you don’t need a credit card to download a ringtone. The charges will just go to the phone bill.
However, there are skeptic music review experts who are against the sale of rap ringtones to mobile phone users. Why pay $2 for a tiny 30 second ringtone from Verizon whereas you can get a full MP3 version for as little as $0.99 from music download sites like itunes? The best answer here is tastes and preferences. Some music listeners just love to identify themselves with the rap culture and so will not mind paying more to have the songs as their ringtones wherever they go. So, the am-a-rap-fan thing will hit others when they hear your phone ring.