IT'S THE MUZAK of the new millennium. The Canto-pop hits of Sammi Cheng Sau-man, Kelly Chen Wai-lam and Aaron Kwok Fu-shing are ringing in a different tone on mobile phones around town in the communication business' latest trend: ringtone downloading.
'We were very surprised by the US$1.5 billion [HK$11.7 billion] revenue generated by ringtone-downloading businesses in Europe,' says Chan Fai-hung, managing director of I-Content Technology, which launched Ringtone King, a ringtone-downloading service, in August.
In Europe, a seemingly endless list of Web sites sell ringtones of tunes by the likes of Eminem, Mick Jagger, Madonna, Mary J Blige and Britney Spears. The Japanese are also developing models of mobile phones that can show images with the downloaded melodies.
While small phone shops have been selling pirated tones since 1998 in Hong Kong, often charging $10 for a 15-second ring, and mobile-phone networks have offered a limited selection of melodies for free or a small fee, Ringtone King is the first company to trade solely in tunes.
'Our target is to create a legal, open platform for all mobile-phone users, no matter which network they use,' Chan says. 'This guarantees composers will receive the royalties they deserve.'
Other ringtone-downloading companies such as Wacky Mobile Club, Antz and Yeah Mobile serve their customers via various networks. Users only have to dial a computer-operated IDD hotline and enter the code of the song they like. The requested ringtone is then sent to the mobile-phone number right away in short-message-system (SMS) code and customers can pay for the service on their credit cards.