UK publisher, EMAP, is to close its Smash Hits title after 28 years and is blaming mobile phones.
The magazine was the music and entertainment “must read” for generations of teens, but has now declined to 120,000 copies, hundreds of thousands less than in its 80’s peak.
The publisher says that teens these days get their information [...]
Forget groantones — why let somebody else have all the fun when you can have your very own personalized “orgasmatone”?
The industrious Alfie Dennen and his team have put together recordings of women screaming the pleasures of the 500 most popular male names in the UK (complete with bow-chicka-bow-bow background music), seriously raising the stakes in [...]
I meant to post this last week, but it slipped through the cracks. Fortunately Matt Maier at MobilePlaya picked it up: Warp Records’s cool Bleep.com download store (which sells un-DRMed music) will let users choose snippets of songs from Bleep’s catalog and make their own ringtone.
Bits and pieces from last week, mostly:
- US mobile content rating system in the works: The trade group of US mobile operators wants to define a standardized content rating and filtering system, not only to make it that much more difficult for kids to see porn, but to also pave the way for them to [...]
Matt Maier has a great interview with Capitol Records’ VP of New Media (Ted Miko, who was involved in the “innovative” Cingular Sounds deal earlier this week) over at his equally great MobilePlaya mobile music and gaming blog.
Forget everything I said about the service being about promoting Capitol artists; it’s a total money-grab by Capitol, [...]
US operator Cingular has launched a new “innovative music program” that sees it releasing ringtones before they’re heard anywhere else, or simultaneously with their debut on radio. The company said this gives its users “a whole new way to enjoy music”, but more importantly, “the entertainment industry a powerful channel to reach tens of millions [...]
Roxio, the maker of popular CD-burning software, says it will distribute Xingtone’s DIY ringtone software at retail outlets. Xingtone lets users take audio files on their computers and turn them into ringtones — functionality record labels are beginning to include on CDs as well.
DIY ringtone software and services could put a dent in ringtone sales, [...]
First “moantones,” now “groantones.” Porn star Ron Jeremy is getting into mobile content, Ringtonia says. In addition to porn, he’ll be selling ringtones and all kinds of other stuff you’d be embarrassed to show in public. At least he’s got a cool icon, though.
Atlantic Records UK says the new CD single from rapper Fabolous it released this week contains software that lets users choose any part of the song and download it to their mobile for use as a ringtune. Based on “MyTone” software from Bounce Technology, buyers put the CD in their computer, choose which part they [...]