SocialTones ~ Help Wanted
February 7, 2008
Ringtones have intrigued me for years. In 2005 at the Web 2.0 conference I saw a panel of teenagers that I will never forget. The average teenager interviewed spent $20-60 per month buying ringtones at prices ranging from one to four dollars each. $1 for a monophonic tune? When the moderator asked the very same teenagers how much they spent buying mp3s (i.e. via iTunes for 99 cents each) they erupted suggesting that buying songs was a rip-off. Huh? Hi-fidelity versions at full-length for less than the cheesy monophonic shortened version? I didn’t understand it, but these teenagers felt that buy offer the music on their phone it was ‘value-added’. While ringtones intrigued me I always thought that it was a dying business. How could it last? Surely people would (as Wired suggested) Stop Paying for Ring Tones.
So here I am in Steamboat Springs Colorado skiing and I have this idea for a ringtone business. Lets call the business SocialTones for purposes of this post. Here is the idea:
- Add your contacts to SocialTones (via MySpace, Facebook or your address book).
- SocialTones emails/calls each of your contacts and suggests that you want them to select the ringtone you will hear when they call you.
- Anyone can register with SocialTones and select ‘their’ ringtone for free. They can update their ringtone at any time.
- Subscribers (who pay something like $25/year) can sync/subscribe their phone’s address book and ringtone list with SocialTones.
So the ringtones are free, the social part requires a subscription. What do you think? Ideas? Suggestions? Anyone want to do it? We can help you… Call me.
