Mobile content keeps rising in today’s world much in the same way as the mobile phones themselves. The transformation is complete, from niche necessity for busy business executives and hard-traveling people who need to make calls at the drop of a hat to funky and popular personal item for almost everybody in today’s busy and hectic world. Everybody wants to have a phone to send messages and make calls with now, and along with those core features mobile phones have been able to deliver a unique personal experience as well thanks to technology – more and more types of mobile content have been packed into mobile phones today, including wallpapers, ringtones and even ringback tones.
Ringback tones are something of a novelty in the mobile content business, and have begun to be as popular as ringtones if not more. Ringtones, which were arguably the first mobile music items, rose to popularity as monotones that approximated a song’s melody with MIDI-type tones. These were followed by polytones, which were essentially monotones overlaid on each other to create a multiple-instrument, orchestral type of melodic approximation. Realtones were the real sellers, though, being actual clips from the songs themselves and even being able to deliver voice clips and sound effects. However, sales have begun to dip, owing largely to technology enabling the general public to put together and install their own ringtones for free.
Ringback tones, still not accessible to the general public this way, provide an interesting recipient of the mobile content torch. They also provide a unique sound experience, as instead of sounding off when a phone receives a call, ringback tones play over the receiver and are heard by the person calling. These ringback tones can be used for recreational purposes – having a celebrity “answer” your phone, or having elevator music entertain a waiting caller – or for business and advertising as well.
This is a growth in the market that will be taken advantage of by London-based firm Muzicall. The leading ringback tone service provider for various operators and companies in England, the company works out of Soho, London to cater to the heart of the European media industry with the best personnel from various fields such as telecommunications, marketing and music. Their current focus includes raising a set amount of capital to expand their ringback tone services even further. Already supplying ringback tone services to the likes of Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone, Muzicall has raised $13.4 million or 9 million euros to invest in this expansion with the likes of GP Bullhound, Veddis Ventures and Thule Orkos Capital as well as BlueRun Ventures.
Expanding in diverse markets outside their current bailiwick will likely be a smart move for the European service provider. Although they still believe that there may be room for growth in their own current European market – roughly 2 percent of users have a ringback tone, a number which can of course still grow quite a bit – CEO Patrick Allainguillaume has specified that along with the European market they will soon cater to Asia and the Unites States as well.
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