Hip hop fans are rapidly buying ring tones, screensavers and more from their favorite artists, to customize and personalize their phones. In fact, last year more than 70% of all ring tones sold in the United States were from hip hop, rap and R&B artists. As that number looks poised to grow this year, more and more hip hop labels are leaping into the mobile game, hoping for a piece of the lucrative market.
“I think a lot of the same folks who love urban music are also the same folks who ride the cutting edge when it comes to mobile technology,” said Peter Gaston, Mobile Editor and Producer, VIBE/SPIN Ventures. “They’re always up on the latest handsets and they want the freshest content on their phones. Last month’s top hit just isn’t good enough. And since these cutting-edge mobile consumers already love hip hop, it’s no surprise that urban ring tones are doing so much business.”
Since any company can license a song for a ring tone, provided they seek out the approval of songwriters’ organizations like BMI and ASCAP, mobile companies have been providing their customers with this service for the last few years. Now record labels are looking to elbow out the competition.
“There’s a certain level of exclusivity that labels want to maintain,” said Gaston. “They want to get their foot in the door and extend their brand in that space so mobile users have a direct porthole to their artists. And they’re looking to develop a relationship with consumers so they go to them first, instead of anywhere else.”
Among the most recent contenders to enter the ring is Def Jam, who have recently partnered up with American Greetings (AG) Interactive to launch Def Jam Mobile, and seven new mobile services. Beyond just providing ring tones, the paired-up uber-brands are now giving customers seven different mobile services to choose from including Def Jam Mobile Beatz (polyphonic ring tones), Def Jam Mobile Trackz (including music tones, celebrity voice tones, film clips and more), and Sportz Tonez (ring tones emulating the sounds of the game).
According to AG Interactive’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, Bryan Biniak, the company isn’t just looking to sell music, it’s looking to sell hip hop as a way of life.
“We’ve approached it not as a music-centric offering, but as a lifestyle offering,” Biniak said, which is why the company provides consumers with content from all the major labels (BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner/Chappell), but only references Def Jam in its moniker.
“When you market a service to people, they want to go to a place that they know and where they’ve had a positive experience,” he said. “So if you were to find and identify one brand that’s the closest thing to defining hip hop, I think Def Jam is it.”
And it’s not just labels that are vying for a piece of the action. Other hip hop focused and pop culture savvy media outlets are getting involved as well. MTV offers exclusive voice and ring tones through its partnership with Virgin Mobile. VIBE provides readers with the popular ring tones, screensavers and wallpapers via mobile.vibe.com , but sets itself apart with its own mobile magazine, mVIBE, launched in the fall of 2003. mVIBE provides its more than 50,000 subscribers with daily news, polls and trivia, as well as exclusive downloads of VIBE’s magazine covers.
As labels and media outlets leap into this industry, seeking to benefit from their artists’ hooks, can enterprising artists be far behind?
“I think you’ll start to see more and more savvy artists extend their own personal brands into the mobile arena to start earning some extra paper outside their record label deals,” said Gaston, “not necessarily through music content, but with voice tones, image downloads and other exclusives.”
The hip hop lifestyle has become extremely marketable, and ring tones have become the quickest way to prove you’re up on the hottest components of that lifestyle. T-shirts with artist photos and group names get outdated too fast, and your whole crew is wearing that hot new Sean John jacket. When being up on the hottest tracks and trends is paramount, ring tones offer the hip hop consumer a way to make a more unique statement.
“You’re kind of reflecting your personality with your phone,” said Biniak. “It’s fashion, right? That’s the reason people are willing to spend $3 for a 20-second clip of music for their phone but not willing to spend 99 cents for the whole song for their iPod. And that’s because it’s different. It says something about who you are.”
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