VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a fast-growing technology that is slowly but surely stealing market share from standard landline phone services. The main attraction is cost. VoIP service can be yours for fundamentally less per month than the equivalent landline service. Better yet, you don’t have to give up any of your favorite landline add-ons, such as call waiting, caller ID, or voicemail; many VoIP services offer all of these features.
Skype has over 74 million users and is owned by eBay. In an effort to put music to our ears, Warner Bros. Music has agreed to make selected music tracks available as master recording ringtones to users of the Skype Internet telephony service. Warner Music will supply songs or short song snippets and images of popular artists to Skype. Skype will market the ringtones and artist images to its more than 70 million registered users.
Ringtone selections will feature Warner Music Group artists including Madonna, Green Day, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, and D4L, with Madonna set to be the first exclusive “Featured Artist”. The Featured Artist section will spotlight content from a particular artist and provide a direct link to an artist-branded page where the ringtones can be purchased. The cost per ringtone from an artist in the featured section will be roughly $1.21. Pricing for the artists’ images was not immediately available.
Skype will seek to add ringtones and artist images from other music companies as the company builds up its personalized service. Never mind that Skype allows you to choose music (in WAV format) from your hard drive for ring tones.
