Booming ring tone business
By Rosli Abidin Yahya 

Ring tones and logos are definitely big business for such operators who are after youths and young students who have easy access to mobile phones. The selected ring tones and logos became their personalised "trademarks" because youths are more likely to customise their devices with a tune that marks their individuality or pays tribute to their favourite musical artiste. However, many musical ring tones may be unlicensed and therefore illegal, said local composers.

According to a recent report by CNET Asia, as many as 65 per cent ring tone companies are unlicensed, thus depriving the copyright owners of significant revenues. Some companies have even identified downloadable ring tones as a major revenue stream in a market that is less receptive to dotcoms since the Internet bubble burst.

A few local companies here also sell ring tones to mobile phone users, the local composers said.

However, the legality of the ring tones must be checked to avoid being sued by composers and musical companies, the legal owners of the ring tones.

"About 10 to 20 million ring tones are downloaded a month in Asia alone, excluding South Korea and Japan.

"The ring tone business looks so lucrative that there are certain US musicians that earn money translating top 40 hits and television themes into ring tones," they said.

With the increasing proliferation of mobile phones locally where about half the population subscribe to such services, some music publishers are beginning to take a proactive stance in collecting copyright fees, they said.

A ring tone download incurs two separate copyright fees - the first is a transmission/ streaming fee, payable to Music Authors Copyright Protection (MACP), which will in turn pay the composers and publishers.

The second is a reproduction fee that is payable direct to the relevant publishers. That means whether it's the stomping guitar rift of Smoke On The Water or the theme to Charlie's Angels, it is considered a reproduction of a musical excerpt, thus involving payment of copyright fees to the copyright owner.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin