Mobile Users to Get Custom Ringtones

In what Warner Music is calling a first for the mobile phone industry, the record company is offering customers the ability to create ringtones based on whichever part of the song they desire. Normally, ringtones come as preset 30-second clips, but companies are looking for new ways to capitalize on the emerging market.

Warner's new CD single "Baby" from rapper Fabolous comes with software to create the custom ringtone. The global ringtone market has proven a new cash cow for the record industry, and is worth an estimated $3 billion. Even Billboard magazine last year launched a weekly chart of top ringtone sellers.