THE FUTURE AS SEEN THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

If the record companies are willing to give up their tight control of the mobile ringtone market, ID Interactive may just have the technology that could infuse more life into the mobile data staple. ID Interactive has developed an editing technology in coordination with mobile content billing aggregator mBlox that will allow customers to customize ringtones directly from the digital master files.

Ringtones have always been about personalization, but the music industry has been reluctant to take that personalization to its logical conclusion. A music label usually releases a few hit tracks from an album, pre-edited to a specific part of the song. Yet, ringtone editing technologies have been around for a while. XingTone, for instance, has built an editing engine that allows customers to rip ringtones directly from CDs, but it requires the purchase of software and a means to connect the phone to a PC.

As for the standard ringtone distribution method — premium short message service download — there have been no options, mainly because of the record labels' concerns of digital rights management (DRM) and qualms about giving users access to audio files.

ID Interactive, however, is trying to ease those worries, providing a service that can allow customers to edit their own ringtone files on the Web and then format them into a digitally protected file that can be distributed over the air.

“Why buy what the record label thinks is the best 20 seconds of my favorite track?” asked Bobby Israeli, vice president of sales and marketing for ID Interactive. “What if I want the last 20 seconds of the song or the middle 20 seconds? What if I want to make a ringtone of a track that isn't even offered? … We're hoping this is the way ringtones will go forward, and we're hoping soon people will be able to do it on the phone deck, not just on the Web.”

ID Interactive is currently trialing the software with band Linkin Park, which will make the editing software available on its fan club Web site. Israeli said a fan may select from tracks on all of Linkin Park's albums and use sliders to create a ringtone of variable length (the system identifies the maximum tone length of a particular phone model). After the final format is set, ID Interactive's software publishes the tone in a DRM-protected file, which is then shipped over mBlox's messaging network to the customer and billed on the appropriate carrier's statement.

“From a technology standpoint this is fairly straightforward,” said Steve Livingston, chief marketing officer of mBlox. “But the opportunity in the market is enormous.”