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Apple and Music Recording Companies Talk About Ringtones

There is a big buzz in the music and cell phone industry about ringtones and ring back tones. Ringtones are one way of personalizing and identifying your iPhone amidst all the similar tones out there. Ring back tones, on the other hand, are also referred to as the answer back tone, which is the audio that you would hear whenever you try to reach someone on their cell phone and replaces the usual "ring-ring" sound. Ringtones are one of the biggest revenue rakers in the cell phone industry. Mobile entertainment alone comprises more than 5% of the $800 billion in wireless services sales.

Apple Inc. has been making announcements of a 3G iPhone sometime this year. Music labels and Apple are preparing to improve their ringtones downloads and would soon offer more content for over-the-air music downloads in preparation for the iPhone's all new 3G capabilities.

Rumors has it that the launch, or at least the unveiling of the 3G iPhone, will happen during the Annual Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9 of this year. Critics and mobile experts would say that it is a surprise that Apple hasn't tapped in the revenue of ringtones yet. iPhone owners cannot purchase AT&T ringtones. This is quite a wonder since the sales of ringtones skyrocketed to $1.2 billion in the United States alone for this year.

With the launch of the 3G iPhone in the market, Apple is rumored to have dealings with music record companies to offer ringtones and ringback tones as well as songs ready for download over the air. Mobile content would be available from iTunes store over a wireless broadband connection. Apple is now working on how they can sell ringtones directly to the consumers. A single ringtone/ ringback tone can cost anywhere from $2 to $3, which is a price that's greater than the cost of a full audio track.