About 300 pieces of music including songs by Nirvana and soundtracks to Titanic and The X-Files will no longer be available to download as ringtones after a list was sent to ringtone vendors by EMIs music publishing arm.
The record company says it is acting on behalf of artists and composers who dont wish to have their compositions converted into ringtones.
Ringtones.co.uk director Andy Mills believes that the decision is due to the poor quality cash-in ringtone versions of songs that bear little resemblance to the original.
A number of ringtone vendors dont take the trouble to even try and replicate the original music in their tones they simply lash it up and put the title on their websites. In effect theyre taking advantage of peoples desire to sell very substandard cover versions of the songs rather like the cheap Top of the Pops albums available from high street retailers in the 1970s said Mills.
Its a minority of vendors cashing in on this booming market that causes problems for credible content providers. The same happened earlier this year over payment of publishing royalties for ringtones sold. Theres always a minority that tarnishes the image of the sector. We rate all of the ringtones available from our website on a 5-star basis according to how well it interprets the tune.
James Winsoar of Phat Tonez which claims to be the first company to commercially sell ringtones said:
Ringtone companies currently pay music companies as much as 10 per cent from the sale of each ringtone in royalties.
It appears that EMI plans to put ringtone companies out of business so it can create just one ringtone business that it owns.
This will mean cutting off the supply of royalty fees to individual musicians who originally created the music.
The only reason behind this must be to create a ringtone monopoly and thereby force people to purchase ringtones at an inflated price from just one corporation. I will be urging the European Union to investigate this decision to ensure that such a monopoly or price cartel cannot be created. Imagine the uproar if a record company refused to supply music to a record store like HMV. This is the same thing claimed Winsoar.
The mobile ringtones market has grown from 2.5 million in the UK to 30 million this year and is expected to hit 50 million in 2002. Winsoar says the market is growing rapidly and expects to deliver content to over two million handsets by April 2002.
