Apple discussing OTA iPhone ringtone downloads with music labels

Posted by james on May 23rd, 2008 at 12:16pm Comments

According to a New York Times report that quotes unnamed music labels execs, Apple is currently in negotiations to expand its ringtones portfolio.

As of now not all music tracks are available to be bought as ringtones through iTunes, and as one of the executives told NYT “They [Apple] want a big launch in June,” which might also include an addition of “ringback tones” that would replace the default rings one is subjected to listen to while waiting for the other party to answer.

Additionally, Apple is pondering the possibility of offering Over-The-Air (OTA) downloads of ringtones directly to the iPhone from its iTunes store (which should work rather fast once the 3G iPhone is released). But in that case music labels appear to want a bigger piece of the pie than the standard 70 cents per song/ringtone that they get from Apple… which might be fair keeping in mind that Apple makes a percentage off carriers’ revenues.

While the negotiations only started several weeks ago, they’re currently “very active” and still ongoing, as a final decision has not been reached.

Related posts:

1. Apple now offers iTunes music downloads over iPhone’s 3G network
2. Apple Limits Number of Automatic iPhone Ringtone Syncs
3. Report: Apple will have to allow over-the-air music downloads for iPhone
4. 10 cents legal music tracks for your iPhone? You better believe it!
5. Unlimited Music Downloads on Rogers and iPhone in Canada?

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