It is a time change for the ringtone industry. The replacement of polyphonic ringtones with real music ringtones is more than a format replacement cycle: because record labels have now arrived in the market, the structure and operation of the ringtone industry is seeing dramatic change.

Presented in two separate volumes, this report is focussed on identifying and analysing the key forces that will shape the new ringtone industry and define the winners and losers. 

Two key themes to emerge from Volume 1 are strong, often divergent views and conflicting commercial interests. In addition, industry incumbents are being placed under unwelcome pressure as the value chain re-organises itself to accommodate the record labels, who are currently pairing off with the mobile operators in a de-facto content-distribution alliance. In this report, Volume 2, these themes and others are analysed objectively to understand what the future holds for different business models and different companies.

Because of the convergence trends under way in the mobile and online music arenas, Volume 2 also contains in-depth analysis of how real music ringtones relate to digital music: both formats will soon be appearing for sale alongside each other on a range of retail platforms, both fixed and mobile.