MW unveils first ringtones chart.(Digital)

There is no doubt that ringtones are big business for music and this fact is underlined this week as Music Week publishes the UK's first official Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) ringtones chart.

The chart, which has been developed over a six-month period by the MEF--the global trade association representing various interests within the mobile entertainment business--is compiled by accountancy firm KPMG and will be published every fortnight in Music Week.

Marketed by the Official Charts Company, the chart currently comprises data from a number of aggregators in the UK market--Amplefuture, Buongiorno Vitaminic, Infomedia, Musiwave, Opera and Phone Future. The MEF hopes to have between 20 and 25 aggregators on board by the end of the year.

Songseekers chairman and Mobile Entertainment Forum member David Simmonds, who has been a driving force behind the development of the ringtones chart, says, "Ringtones are a product 100% consisting of music and which, by music standards, have been dominated by poor-sounding instrumental versions which people have been purchasing from between 1 [pounds sterling] and 4 [pounds sterling]--a music product which is not sold by music companies which is creating a gap between the mobile and music industries.

"The first way to regulate that is to create a chart where you can involve publishers and monitor sales--we believe being a chart aggregator will be ...