Billboard Rolls Out Cell Phone Ringtone Chart

Tue Oct 26, 5:28 PM ET Entertainment - Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Those synthesized tunes that send people grabbing for their cell phones and annoy patrons in restaurants and theaters have been recognized as part of the music industry by Billboard Magazine.

The weekly entertainment industry publication, which tracks top record and CD sales, said it was launching a new chart that will track the popularity of cell phone ringtones, as they are called.

The new chart, known as the Billboard Hot Ringtones Chart, will reflect the "Top 20" polyphonic ringtone sales for each week, including song title, artist, previous week's position and number of weeks on the chart.

Polyphonic tones are the dominant force in the ringtone market and are created using electronic synthesizers.

The ringtone market has exploded in recent years, with global revenues estimated to have topped $3.5 billion in 2003, according to industry estimates.

The ringtones, literally thousands of them, can be downloaded from the Internet. A recent Web browse showed synthesized versions of tunes from national anthems to classical music to golden oldies and rap, and everything in between, are available to be downloaded into cell phones.

The first ringtone chart will appear in the Nov. 6 issue of Billboard, which is compiling the chart with Consect, a provider of U.S. mobile market analysis. The data for the chart will be aggregated from major ringtone distributors and wireless carriers.

According to a recent report by Consect, the U.S. market for cell phone rings based on hit songs is growing faster than any other region, projected to increase by 100 percent to $300 million in 2004, but it still lags other markets, with Western Europe seen generating $1.5 billion and Asia as a whole will make $1.8 billion. South Korea (news - web sites) alone is set to take in $500 million for ringtones, according to reports.

Billboard is owned by Netherlands-based media company VNU NV

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OMG THIS IS TEH STPDZ.