Japan's mobile 'ring songs' market grows 600%

Asia Times: "The market for chaku-uta, the use of actual songs recorded by artists for cellular phone ring tones, increased more than sevenfold to 20.1 billion yen (US$179 million) in 2004, according to the Mobile Contents Forum." The increase is put down to (in part) the introduction of flat-rate data transmission fees by the three major telcos, as well as the spread of 3G handsets. "This trend is accelerating in 2005 as well, so cell phones will become an important sales channel for the music industry," predicts the industry group of cell phone content providers." The market for conventional ringtones grew by 6%, compared to 15% the previous year.

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