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 Technology News | August 2005 
Latin Fans Ready to Dial Up Ringtones
 Antony Bruno - Billboard
The next growth spurt in the ringtone market very likely will have a Latin flavor.
With few exceptions, ringtones have remained largely a medium for hip-hop/R&B music, because of the genre's popularity and the wide acceptance of wireless services within hip-hop culture. Such hip-hop acts as 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg and Lil Jon regularly dominate the Billboard Hot Ringtones chart.
But wireless operators are seeking new areas for growth and see the urban Hispanic market - dubbed "hurban" - as a prime target.
"What we're trying to do is expand the market for who buys ringers," says Colleen LeCount, ringtone product manager for Sprint. "It's not just about hip-hop anymore."
While the market for ringtones has exploded in Latin America, in the United States only a few Latin music ringtones have become best sellers. They include "Toma" by Cuban-American rapper Pitbull and "La Tortura" by Shakira. But several signs indicate that a spike in sales of Latin ringtones is imminent.
First of all, the Hispanic user base is growing right into the wireless entertainment sweet spot. The market for ringtones and other wireless entertainment services has been driven by 15- to 25-year-olds. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that Hispanics will be the largest teen minority group by year's end, and will account for 20 percent of teens by 2015.
MULTIMEDIA MAVENS
At the same time, Hispanics are the most prolific consumers of wireless devices, services and content. According to a Forrester Research report, Hispanics tend to buy multimedia-capable phones much sooner after their introduction than other demographic groups and replace their handsets more frequently.
Hispanics also spend $10 more per month on their phone bills and 25 percent to 50 percent more on mobile entertainment applications than other groups do. For instance, 12 percent of Hispanics use data services like ringtones, compared with only 7 percent of whites.
"Hispanics demonstrate higher awareness of the capabilities of their phones and are more likely to take advantage of basic features," the report reads. "Not only are blacks and Hispanics more likely to have phones with newer capabilities like Internet access, they are more likely to use them."
Not surprisingly, wireless operators and content aggregators are looking for a greater variety of content to appeal to this increasingly powerful consumer group. And this effort comes at a time when Latin music, particularly reggaeton, is exploding in popularity.
While the music industry remains mired in an overall sales slump, Latin is the only genre showing growth, up 17 percent this year, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan.
Major labels have begun forming urban Latin labels, like Universal Music Group's Machete Music, and Latin superstars are scoring major-label contracts, such as reggaeton sensation Tego Calderon's deal with Atlantic Records.
Several mobile entertainment publishers and content aggregators have made increasingly aggressive moves into the Hispanic market.
One pioneer of this strategy is AG Mobile, best known for operating the Def Jam Mobile business in partnership with Russell Simmons. The company formed a similar relationship with Hispanic media conglomerate Univision to run the Univision Movil wireless service and Univision Melodias ringtone store.
Newcomer BarrioMobile is another pioneer, focusing on reggaeton, Latin hip-hop and rock en Espanol. Like its sister company BlingTones, BarrioMobile operates as a wireless "label": It enlists prominent Latin acts - including Pitbull, Calderon, Yerba Buena and Don Dinero - to create content exclusively for mobile devices. |
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