Money on the line

It was less than a year ago that the hip-hop anthem “Party Like a Rock Star” conquered the radio, the TV and cell phones on campuses nationwide.

But unlike the hit singles of yore, “Party Like a Rock Star” belonged to a new class of musical stardom: one backed increasingly by ringtone sales.

According to a recent New York Times article, hip-hop sales plummeted 21 percent between 2005 and 2006, forcing producers to look outside conventional markets to balance the books. Ringtone sales provided a new source of financial compensation they so desperately needed.

“Album sales for hip-hop have declined faster than the overall market for the last few years,” said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for Billboard magazine. “But before you write off the popularity of that music you have to consider that it really sells a lot of ringtones. It’s a place that artists are making names for themselves.”

Chris Padilla, a third-year psychology student and aspiring record producer, also understands the appeal.

“Singles are $1 and ringtones are (about) $4, so there are some producers who write with ringtones in mind. They try to write catchy melodies because there’s a lot of money in ringtones nowadays,” he said.

Indeed, artists and producers know the value of a single that easily translates to ringtone form. Just look to the top ringtones of last year: “This Is Why I’m Hot” spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, “Buy U A Drank” spent seven weeks there, and last quarter’s it song, “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” stayed at No. 1 for a whopping 12 weeks. Niels Genzmer, a spokesman for Jamster, a company that specializes in the sale of ringtones, sees common traits in these songs. He attributes their success to catchy hooks, condensed buildups and choruses that deliver their messages in the time it takes for a phone to ring.

Those easily digestible elements of popular ringtones function as a gold standard in the industry: something to strive for in every single.

“Producers and artists do consider the ringtone market and therefore produce special versions of their songs to appeal to (it),” Genzmer said.

But for new artists, especially those who struggle to earn space on the competitive and fickle hip-hop airwaves, the ringtone market is especially lucrative.

“There are some artists who have actually set up their popularity through the ringtone market,” Mayfield said. “Soulja Boy this year would be one who clearly had a song that was geared to (ringtones).”

Considering that Broadcast Music Inc. estimated that ringtones brought in $600 million in 2006, it’s a smart move for artists, continued Mayfield.

In an age of MTV and true tones, actual clips of songs rather than polyphonic sounds, students notice the trend as well.

“I definitely believe that (artists) write songs with the ringtone market it mind, but I also think that certain beats just lend themselves to being good ringtones,” said Shary Shirazi, a third-year communication studies and English student.

2007’s ringtone giants the Shop Boyz and MIMS (“Party Like a Rock Star,” “This is Why I’m Hot”) fueled their careers through the market, collecting their share of the $2.99 that typical cell-phone carriers charge for ringtones. But despite the considerable cash flow and the advertising power of their successful ringtones, both the Shop Boyz’s and MIMS’ albums never went gold. They represent the changing face of hip-hop, a market driven more and more by one-hit wonders and the “ringtone rap” that has been denounced by the likes of Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent.

Whether or not established artists resent ringtone rappers and their producers, the industry has made a striking change. Big singles sell; albums don’t. Perhaps it’s the dwindling sales that have driven producers to cultivate individual singles instead of entire albums, or perhaps the accessibility of 99 cent singles on iTunes has favored single tracks over complete releases. No doubt both of these factors are influencing the market, and the popularity of ringtones by one-hit wonder artists is simply the most obvious manifestation of the change.

“We definitely see a bigger focus on singles, especially with artists that are not so well established in the market,” Genzmer said.

It is unlikely, given the current decline in sales, that the industry can sustain itself on individual songs instead of complete albums.

However, the oft-cited fact that consumers are willing to shell out the $2.99 for a ringtone when they could have the entire song for 99 cents indicates that the hip-hop market, at least in some capacity, is still alive and thriving. Producers and artists just have to figure out how to tap it.

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