Downloadable Free Ringtones
In the early days of ringtones, there used to be many sites giving away free ringers. However, most of these sites survived because they were not paying royalty fees to music companies. And because the ringtones are recognizable pieces of actual songs (especially polyphonic and SuperTones ones), there is a need to pay these royalties. However, most of these sites were forced to shut down as music companies hardened their attitude against non-paying ringtone sites. First signs of the hard line was EMI's law suit against YourMobile.com (that case was settled out of court and YourMobile now pays royalties on downloads). Downloadable Free Ringtones - Resources The remaining sites after the shutdown of non-paying sites offer ringtones for a small amount of money, generally in the range of $1-$3 per ringtone (some polyphonic ringers / RealTones / celebrity voice ringers may cost a lot more). This fee covers possible payments to the ringtone platform manufacturer (if they have a revenue share deal), the wireless carrier, the tunes manufacturer, and copyright holder, as well as profit margin for the reseller. However, there are free resources still available, and you may even find complete sites operating on advertising fee revenues. Most of the free ringers for download are available from commercial sites as freebies. These freebies are an important part of the service, as you can test with them that your cell phone, cell phone plan, and cell phone company all support downloads from that ringtone reseller. In addition to the freebie sections, there are promotional ringers from music companies and more importantly, from information sites. As an example of information sites with free downloadable ringtones, there's about.com. About.com has hired a composer to do ringtones for them and they can offer these ringers for free download as the copyright holder works within the house (and they cover other fees with advertizing revenue). |