Ringtone Producer

The promise of spring is at last in the air in the Southern Hemisphere, and with it, our thoughts inevitably turn to love.

It turns out our new, annual bout of spring fever is contagious, because many ringtone producers around the world are also pondering matters of love and sex.

In India, a ring tone is reminding everyone within ear shot to glove it up before they love it up. The a cappella ring tone features a professional singer chanting the word “Condom!” more than 50 times. It was launched on August 8 and has been downloaded more than 60,000 times.

Nearly 2.5 million people in India are infected with HIV, but the disease and condom use are still largely stigmatised and taboo throughout most of that country. The BBC World Service Trust of India, a group funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, hopes that the ringtone will move the concept of the condom away from negative associations (such as with sex work and HIV) and that it will make condoms and safe sex issues more socially acceptable.

More than 270 million people in India use mobile phones and ringtones, especially those featuring hit Bollywood songs, are extremely popular. Said Yvonne MacPherson, country director of the BBC World Trust Service in India: “A ring tone is a very public thing. It’s a way to show you are a condom user and you don’t have any issues with it.”

On the other side of the world, in the United States, a Detroit rapper isn’t so much concerned about safe sex as he is about keeping female cell phone users abreast of the competition…

Digital Divas, a media company co-owned by rapper Mr. Scrillion (aka Adam Thick), has just launched Boobtones, a series of four different ringtones containing ‘breast enhancing technology’.

According to Scrillion, the ‘breast enlarging ringtones’ in four different musical styles ‘utilise hidden messages embedded in the ringtones for breast enhancing effect’.

“It’s painless, fun and costs less than a cup of coffee, so there’s no risk in trying it. If you want a little lift, let our Boobtones help you summon the sweater puppets you deserve.”

For $1.99, users can purchase the ringtone (which combines positive subliminal messages with a unique and natural sound that produces a physiological response) directly from the Boobtones website (www.boobtones.com). Your subliminal message can be delivered to a Latin or Hip Hop beat. Or if that isn’t your thing, it also comes in country or rock.

If their idea isn’t a complete boob, Digital Divas has big plans to offer a similar ringtone aimed specifically at men. (We suspect that the male ringtone would be aimed towards enlarging the male… ego.)

Boobtones might NOT go bust after all, especially not if the numbers are any indication. According to BMI, ringtones are estimated to surpass $210 million in US retail sales by the end of this year. Novelty ringtones, such as Boobtones, make up a large part of that revenue.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Ringtone Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.