Skype Makes VoIP Ringtone Deal with Warner Music Group

6:30 am on January 31, 2006 | Category: VoIP, Web Services

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Skype has come to an agreement with Warner Music Group, which will allow internet telephony users to download Warner content for use as VoIP ringtones.

“We are excited that more than 70 million Skype users around the world will now have the ability to enjoy content from Warner Music artists,” said Warner Music’s VP of digital strategy and business development, Alex Zubillag.

Songs will be available at a fixed price of $1.50 each, and will be available from a variety of artists, starting with Madonna. With ringtones accounting for about 36% of digital music sales worldwide, the companies are obviously aiming to combine this with online VoIP to create a colossal cash cow.

Some analysts, however, aren’t convinced that ringtones will have the same impact in the VoIP market as they have with cell phones. This is largely due to the fact that most Skype users are quite tech-savvy, and already purchase digital music through other channels.

Nevertheless, an agreement such as this does open up one more distribution channel for both ringtones and digital music in general.

“The prospects are limited,” said In-Stat analyst, Dave Chamberlain. “However, there is no reason why ringtones should live only in the cell phone.”

In short, this might not be the next big revolution in music or VoIP, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try.

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    Published by TeleClick Enterprises
    Edited by Jeremy Maddock