{"id":116,"date":"2005-05-27T21:57:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-27T21:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwilson.me.uk\/blog\/2005\/05\/crazy-ringtones-could-skins-for.htm"},"modified":"2007-07-25T21:33:15","modified_gmt":"2007-07-25T20:33:15","slug":"crazy-ringtones-could-skins-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2005\/05\/crazy-ringtones-could-skins-for.htm","title":{"rendered":"Crazy ringtones – could skins for smartphones be the next big thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It had to happen – with music single sales falling and downloads incorporated into the official UK music charts<\/a> (since 17 April 2005) one day a ringtone-derived music single (the inevitable evolution of a music single-derived ringtone) would outsell a major music act. Keni<\/a> was outraged to hear the crazy frog<\/a> ringtone on my phone today (and no, I didn’t buy it – my brother sent it to me via Bluetooth) but I’m amazed at just how much attention the crazy frog has generated, seeing as it all started off as a Swedish student imitating his mate’s two-stroke scooter<\/a> (hmm… I do something like that with my son in the shopping trolley as we whizz ’round Tesco<\/a>…).<\/p>\n

What seems particularly strange is how people are petitioning to get this off our airwaves<\/a> (even complaining to the UK advertising standards agency<\/a>) – surely if a company has enough money to pay for this level of advertising (and if you’re going to make £10m from selling a single ringtone, that should be plenty), then let them do it – even the “no advertising here” BBC runs ads on its World Service<\/a> and in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show<\/a> coverage Alan Titchmarsh<\/a> regularly mentions that the event is “supported by Merrill Lynch<\/a>” (there goes the last of my street cred’).<\/p>\n

The ringtone download market is growing at a phenomenal rate and according to The Independent<\/a>, the typical \u00c2\u00a33 cost of a realtone is divided up as follows:<\/p>\n