"Xingtone’s new software, which lets anyone create unique cellular phone rings for free, has some record labels worried it will kill the cash cow that is the ringtone. The software evokes the same ‘oh wow, oh no’ reaction from the labels that greeted the original Napster. The fear is that people will make ringtones out of pirated songs, thus compounding the file-sharing problem while robbing the music industry of a new source of revenue.

The quest for a distinctive cell phone ring has created a $3 billion global market for everything from computer-generated renditions of such classics as The Temptations ‘Just My Imagination,’ to near-CD-quality snippets of popular songs like OutKast’s ‘Hey Ya!.’"

Dawn C. Chmielewski. Do-It-Yourself Ringtone Software Encroaching on Potential Profits, Some Record Labels Say. The Mercury News. May 17, 2004.

Xingtone. Getting Started with Xingtone.

Mere days after our luddites and legislation posting, SNTReport.com has learned that Italy’s parliament has voted in favor of imposing jail sentences of up to three years on anyone caught uploading or downloading unauthorized copyrighted material to and from the Net. The legislation makes Italy one of the first countries to enact legislation that specifically criminalizes file sharing and P2P activities.

While several credible studies have published recently have provided reliable evidence that file sharing and peer-to-peer networking are not the sole — or even primary — causes of the music industry’s lost revenue, Leigh Phillips’s brief story in Digital Media Europe suggests that today’s children are simply doing other things.

"Under-25s spend much more money per year on mobile products than on music. Manifestly, this is not simply a case of youngsters downloading music instead of purchasing CDs, it is a wholesale shift in mindset and way of life from earlier generations," said Phillips. "The mobile, to many young people, maintains a place in their life that pop music did for my generation and that of my parents. There was a survey published last year that found that UK teens are also spending far less on cigarettes and chocolate than preceding generations. What are they spending the money on? Why, mobile phones, of course.

"Thus, this shows, once more, that what is affecting music sales is so much broader than the issue of downloading and piracy."

Leigh Phillips. Mobile Phones are the New Rock and Roll. Digital Media Europe. May 24, 2004.

Tony Smith. Italy Approves ‘Jail for P2P Users’ Law. The Register. May 20, 2004.