Ringback tones, the sound/music that we hear, when we call somebody is fast becoming popular among cell phone users and has the highest growth percentage among cell phone related businesses. According to M:Metrics, the number of cell phone users who purchased ringback tones between February 2007 and February 2008, jumped by 69%. In comparison, the market for ringtones and wallpapers in the same period grew by only 4.3% and 6.2% respectively.

The main reason for music labels and cell phone service providers to be upbeat about the ringback tone business is that actual usage and growth figures can be estimated. Unlike ringtones, which cell phone users can exchange among themselves or download for free from various websites, ringback tones can be obtained only through the service provider and only for a price. According to the research firm Multimedia Intelligence, the ringback tone business is expected to touch revenues of up to $4.7 billion by 2012.

Ideally there’s not much difference between a ringtone and a ringback tone. The same songs and true tones can be used as both a ringtone and a ringback tone. A ringback tone is more personal than the ringtone; if we have a message for our callers, a nice ringback tone is sufficient to send the message across.

Usually hip-hop and R&B numbers are more preferred as ringback tones, with the popular ones being, ‘Shawty Is A 10′ by The Dream, ‘Bed’ by J. Holiday, ‘Heaven Sent’ by Keyshia Cole. In fact, the Alicia Keyes’ hit single ‘No one’ became the first ever Gold-selling ringback tone, selling to more than 500,000 mobile users. If it had been album sales, the same number would have given it a Gold status.

Cell phone service providers and music companies are making a lot of money from the ringtone and ringback tone business. The websites that offer free ringtones and wallpapers are facing a tough time with copyright and piracy issues. Hence, they have changed their modus operandi by coming out with innovative tones like mosquito tone or teen buzz ringtone with ultrasonic sound waves that are audible only to those below 20 years of age. Some websites allow you to make your own ringtone free by using music from your PC/laptop and mixing it the way you like.

Related Posts

• July 7, 2009 — How to Customize Blackberry Ringtones & Ringbacks (2)
• May 18, 2010 — Blackberry Ringtones (1)
• May 27, 2009 — How To Get Free Answer Tones For Cellular Phones (1)
• May 3, 2009 — Verizon Ringback Tones (1)
• July 4, 2009 — Upload Ring Tones to Your Phone (2)

Technically, your ring back tone is a status indicator telling your caller that your line is available (ie., in service and not busy). Network connections through the telephony networks between the caller and the callee’s audio devices are either made, or will be available to be connected, and the phone call will complete.

If all goes well, then the call can either be answered by a person (as long as the called number is not busy, or if the number is busy, and the phone being called has a call waiting service which notifies the person occupying the line to hang up the call in process, or put it on hold, in order to answer the incoming call), or by an answering machine or a network-based voice processor. This is the default case if the line is busy and the user a) doesn’t have a call waiting service, or b) did not answer the incoming call within the (programmable) number of rings.

Again, if we want to get technical, in North America (United States and Canada), which are within the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), the standard PSTN ring back tone is generated by summing a 440-Hz tone with a 480-Hz tone and applying these to the telephone line with 2 and 4 second alternating tones.

The interference due to the difference in frequency between the two tones causes a 40-Hz beat, and the tone combination produces the common warbling “ring … ring … ring” sound. The ring back tone may be generated by the switch serving either the called party or the calling party, but it is not generated by the called telephone instrument or PBX. Usually the ring back tone starts and stops in time with the phone being called, except that it is out of phase – it rings when the caller hears the pause, etc.

So what’s so great about ring back tones? Well, rather than just hearing the same old boring ‘ring’, you can change this sound that your cell phone plays when people call your cell. The cell phone companies let you set the ring back(s) you want on your phone, and will then charge your cell phone bill a per ringback charge. The most popular options are rap, pop and classical music clips, although there are some sound clips also available.

The best thing about ringback tones is that you can customize the tone played depending on the caller – it is possible to select up to 100 or so active ringback tones at any given time, each programmed so that different callers hear different tones/songs/clips, or programmed so that different tones will play dependent on the time of day.If you want to find out more information about setting up ring back tones on your cell phone, you can search for your cellphone carrier and ‘ringback tones’. (Source)

Related Posts

• July 7, 2009 — How to Customize Blackberry Ringtones & Ringbacks (2)
• June 10, 2009 — Ringback Tones, Music for Your Callers (1)
• May 27, 2009 — How To Get Free Answer Tones For Cellular Phones (1)
• May 3, 2009 — Verizon Ringback Tones (1)
• May 26, 2010 — Blackberry Ringtones You Should Have (0)