Ringtone Royalties: music bizmodel of the future?

Justin sez: "According to this story in the Asahi Shinbun, musicians in Japan have seen a recent rapid increase in the amount of royalties paid for downloaded ringtones."

According to JASRAC, music lovers download more than 60 million tunes for use as chakumero each month, making the service a lucrative source of income for songwriters and composers.

Every time a song is downloaded from an Internet service provider onto a cellphone, the provider pays royalties to JASRAC, which distributes the money to copyright holders.

Link Discuss (Thanks Justin!)