BMI: Ringtones waning, ringbacks rising

Performing rights organization BMI released its annual projections for the U.S. ringtone market, forecasting a decline for the second consecutive year. According to BMI, ringtones will generate roughly $510 million in retail sales during 2008, a 7 percent reduction from 2007's $550 million haul--at the same time, BMI anticipates ringback sales will surpass the $210 million mark in the U.S., up 50 percent from last year's market estimate of $140 million. "The market for ringback tones has grown stronger than we originally forecasted last year," said BMI's vice president of new media and strategic development Richard Conlon in a prepared statement. "Its growth, coupled with the positive gains that streaming mobile media have made in 2008 alone, supports our bullish point of view on the growth of the mobile entertainment business. We see gains in mobile audio and mobile television style services in the coming years as well. As we forecasted last year, the ringtone market continues to decline as the novelty phase wears off and lower-priced substitutional products come to market."

For more on BMI's ringtone forecast:
- read this release

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