video ringtones

Pepsi is running an interesting promotion – if the code under your bottle cap is a winner, you can download a video ringtone to your cell phone. But what’s really neat about the promotion is that major music stars – Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, and the All American Rejects (ok, I don’t know this one) – all signed up to not only have their videos used in the promotion but to actually create entirely new music videos just to be used as video ringtones. You can see them all on YouTube. But can original mobile content like this make money?

There’s no doubt that ringtones have become a major industry, and one that musicians dominate. Last year the Recording Industry of America sold $421.6 million worth of mobile content. Ringtones have their own Billboard chart, and doing well on it can lead to commercial successful for musicians. Just last week rapper Rick Ross’ single went platinum before he even released his album.

But can other industries cash in on ringtones? Some activists have used ringtones extraordinarily well to get out their message. The best example and by far the most famous political ringtone yet is the Hello Garci ringtone from the Philippines available at TXTPower, which protests President Gloria Arroyo’s rigging of the most recent election. It’s two years later and people all over the country still use the ringtone.

Read More >>