The mobile phone music industry is predicted to grow, according to a study by Juniper Research, which forecasts an annual revenue increase to $5.5 billion worldwide by 2014 from the current $2.5 billion. Juniper attributes this growth forecast to applications and more comprehensive data plans by cell phone companies.
Verizon's music hub is V-Cast with Rhapsody, a program that provides users with the ability to download ringtones and full-length songs they can listen to. Verizon has even expanded V-Cast into a personal computer program, making music downloadable on any PC and transferable to a cell phone. The fee: $14.99 per month for unlimited music (which is something of a "rental" model -- users pay an additional by-song fee to actually own tracks).
"We are essentially a music retailer," Debbie Lewis, a representative for Verizon Wireless, told HispanicBusiness.com. "So we often do deals with record labels like anyone else, whether you're a Wal-Mart or a Verizon. People use [music] as a way of personalizing their phones. It's definitely something that is growing."
But music via cell phones is not money maker just for the mobile phone industry -- it can be a hearty source of revenue for artists and record labels who sells songs to wireless companies. The Recording Industry Association of America knows that ringtones, ringback tones, and MP3s via cell phones comprise a large industry on the rise and the organization has embraced it as a means of revenue and as another artist popularity index. RIAA created what it calls the "ringer's circle," or artists who sell a certain high amount of ringtones. Since 2006, RIAA has featured an annual Master Ringtone award. Like regular record sales, ringtone sales are shown through gold and platinum awards, standards that mean an artist has sold 100,000 or 1 million tones, respectively. Like regular record sales, these numbers show an artist's popularity among fans, this time just via mobile phone.
By working with RIAA--which is responsible for nearly 85% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States--cell phone companies are gaining access to a vast supply of music.
Perhaps the most successful phone in the music industry is the ubiquitous iPhone, which, according to PC World, had sold 17 million units as of March 2009. An iPhone's mobile-purchased music comes directly from iTunes, which according to Mac World is now the largest retailer of music within the U.S., period -- outdoing both Wal-Mart and Best Buy (numbers two and three, respectively). Of course, users don't need to buy music from iTunes, as ripping previously owned CDs is an option, as with any iPod. But the iPhone has the advantage of being able to download via cell networks from the largest computer music store in the nation. The pricing of a mobile download is the same as if the user did it through his or her home computer -- usually about a buck.
