The mobile distribution of music has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the music business and mobile carriers such as Verizon, Sprint and Vodafone are positioning themselves to be important players in the industry. Mobile rintones and ringbacks have become a very popular trend and allow music fans to personalize their phone. Mobile downloads directly to a phone hold the promise of ease and convenience but have seen much more success in Asia and the European Union than in the United States to date.

Ringtones were one of the first paid mobile products to gain wide acceptance and quickly developed into a multi-billion dollar worldwide industry. The first ringtones were simple tones that played the same notes of so a particular song when a user’s mobile phone rang. True tones or actual samples of a song were the next evolution of ringtones and in some cases propelled the revenue generated from the sale of a ringtone ahead of actual CD or single sales. Ringbacks allow the owner of a phone to personalize the ring a caller hears when they call the owner’s phone. Instead of hearing the traditional ringing sound a caller will hear a song selected by the phone’s owner. Owners can customize the ringback so a specific song will play for different callers that are saved on their phone.

Mobile track downloads, ringtones and ringbacks typically cost more (2-3 times in some cases) than a traditional digital track download from a PC. Mobile carriers make purchasing much more convenient than purchasing through a credit card by simply applying the fees for downloads to their customer’s next monthly mobile service bill. Although the gross revenue generated by mobile downloads is much greater than a typical download from a digital retailer an artist might not see a significant increase in their royalties from sales since the mobile carrier, ringtone provider, distributor and record label share in the revenue before the artist gets paid per the terms of their recording contract .

Text messaging continues to grow in popularity as a fast and easy way to communicate. Some artists and record labels are now using text messaging as a promotional tool to reach music fans via promotions and giveaways.