Ringtones are abuzz in Malaysia

All abuzz over ringtones
BY STEVEN PATRICK
WHAT started out as a gimmick for recording companies has become a full-blown trend. Ringtones are a youth fashion statement today, just like blue-jeans in the 1970s.

EMI Malaysia managing director Darren Choy said, “We are seeing a new generation of people who actually buy more ringtones than CDs. It’s really puzzling ... if you buy 10 ringtones, you can actually buy an album to last you a lifetime.”

Perhaps it’s because you can show off a ringtone but you can’t show off “listening to an album in your living room,” suggested Choy.

While clothes still make the man, your choice of ringtone, may tell as much about your personality as the pair of jeans you just splurged on. People may even size you up based on the type of ringtone you have.

“We believe that ringtones have added a new dimension of personalisation to mobile communications for our customers. It has allowed them another chance to put their personality onto their mobile device which today has become an extension of who we are,” said Maxis Communications Bhd (www.maxis.com.my) general manager and head of product development and management Karim Abdul Malik.

Soundbuzz.com (www.soundbuzz.com) chief executive officer Sudhanshu Sarronwala said, “Ringtones are still seen as a personalisation product by consumers and will continue to evolve and grow. It is another form of digital music demanded and consumed voraciously by consumers.”

Soundbuzz is a Singapore-based digital delivery services company.

Big business and dollar signs

Ringtones are the most downloaded type of mobile entertainment content, ranking above Java games, wallpapers and logos, said Maxis. Currently 67% of its subscribers’ downloads consist of ringtones.

Maxis, which claims to have nearly five million subscribers out of a total of 12 million handphone users in Malaysia, said that 60% of its ringtone customers downloaded at least two ringtones in the last 12 months.

Digi Telecommunications (www.digi.com.my) would not reveal its ringtone download figures; while Celcom (www.celcom.com.my) did not respond as of press time.

Sudhanshu stressed that repeat usage was what made “the business tick.”

The ringtone business is now roughly equivalent to 10% of the US$32.2bil (RM122.4bil) global music market.