Skype to Add Warner Music Ringtones
Skype announced on Monday it had reached a deal with music label Warner to provide ringtones for its VoIP service. The sale of musical ringtones will add another revenue stream for Skype, which makes a large portion of its money from the fees it charges for premium services.
Warner is only the first of several expected deals with music labels that would put Skype's selection of ringtones on par with that of the major cellular carriers.
Each 30-second song clip will cost $1.50, and would work similarly to the way current ringtones do. Ringtones have become a huge business for the record industry, and some analysts say as much as two-thirds of the $1.1 billion generated from digital music could have come from that segment.
The song clips will be made available as an option to users within two months. The entire catalog of Warner music that is currently made available to cell phone carriers would also be made available to Skype, with the VoIP provider initially featuring Madonna.
Clips from her most recent album, "Confessions on a Dancefloor," would be featured in Skype's online store when the new service launches. Until now, ringtones from that album had been exclusive to the Sprint Nextel service.
"This agreement exemplifies our commitment to finding new ways our artists' music can be experienced across emerging platforms and distribution channels," Warner Music Group executive vice president Alex Zubillaga said in a statement.
Warner also revealed other future music-related announcements to come from Skype, including a ringback tone service and other music-based personalization features. Also, Zubillaga said Skype is not the only VoIP provider the label is pursuing.
However, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Monday, Zubillaga admitted that while the ringtone industry is doing well with clips of real songs, that could change in the not too distant future.
"Today it's master ringtones," he said. "Tommorow it could be interactive ringtones."