Ringtones earn more than Spotify, Rhapsody, & Radio combined

Still bringing in $277m a year in the US.
You'd have thought the ringtone was a valueless relic these days such was its dramatic fall from favour in the mid-nineties.
The pincer movement of draconian legislation against mis-sold subscriptions and the ability to self-configure tones based on a user's own sideloaded library was supposed to have killed it.
But it seems consumers haven't been listening to the tech press.
New stats from the RIAA show that ringtones accounted for $277.4 million in the US last year, against $241.0 million revenues from mobile music subscription services like the much-hyped Spotify.
You have to wonder just how much of that $277 still comes from hapless consumers signing up for (legal) subscriptions without reading the Ts & Cs, but it's a pretty remarkable stat nonetheless.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...ombined/017644