As everyone knows, the sales of ringtones are major business these days. Usually, you hear some of the bigger names in the business promoting on places like MTV and VH1, but there is a new entry into the ringtone that plans on being far different than the usual ringtone sites.
Founded by two Detroiters and another from Toronto, Bongotones.com is creating a site where people can not only create their own ringtones for free, but create different opportunities for the listener to explore more about the bands and even use the site as a social networking site (along the lines of Facebook).
I had a chance to chat with Bongotones Co-Founder Nareg Sagherian and discuss some of the different features of the site and the copyright situations that might come up dealing with ringtones. Here is my interview with Nareg:
AM: How did the idea for Bongotones come up?
NS: We’ve all been friends for a long time, and we thought of the idea when we were in college. Me and David (Pahkchainan- co-founder) were at Michigan, and Soheil (Banifatemi- other co-founder) was at the University of Toronto. We all had different backgrounds as far as taste in music. We wanted to use that love for music and incorporate that using the internet. We’ve all known that CD sales are down, and even ringtone sales were down as well. It’s mostly for the fact that there’s no new technology in those forms these days. We wanted to create something where we get the users of the site involved in ringtones, so we started creating applications that allowed the user to do that.
AM: Even though sales for ringtones are slightly down, are you surprised with the overall emergence of ringtones as a musical entity?
NS: I am surprised at the popularity of ringtones, but some people just do not like the concept. But with our site, we aim to change that. With the changes to the site, we’ve received sponsors from 50 different countries so far as well as all 50 states. We’ve seen the site grow from the original idea the three of us had back in September 2007, and through the 6-8 months of design and then to the launch of the site in September of 2008.
AM: What do you think makes the site different than normal ringtone sites out there?
NS: I think its more user friendly to the average person. Plus, we are allowing people to create and post their own ringtones on the site. All of this is free as well, which makes the site completely different than other sites. Also, listeners can create blogs to discuss the music and the ringtones as well. We listen to their comments and make any requested
corrections and additions. Social interaction between our users is a big aim of ours because we are trying to build a brand, instead of simply offering ringtones for profit like many of the other ringtone websites.
AM: Bongotones is starting to get artists (local & national) involved in the site- care to explain the plans for that?
NS: As far as the artists are concerned, Bongotones.com has established the highly-anticipated artist sign up page, allowing musicians and bands to create a personal profile page for any current and future fans. Furthermore, Bongotones.com lets artists convert their original music into ringtones in minutes, making them instantly available to fans. Bongotones.com gives artists a bunch of great tools to promote their content, including the ability to cross promote their own website. We also have an option for users to purchase complete songs via "Amazon mp3" should they desire to do so, thus, further promoting the artist. We are also in the process of providing artists the capacity to build awareness on upcoming events (CD releases, tour dates, etc.), convert fans on our site to Twitter followers, MySpace fans, and Facebook fans. Therefore, that is why our next big campaign is to get local artists to sign up on the site.
AM: With the free aspect of the site, have you run into copyright issues with any of the record labels?
NS: So far, we haven’t. We have been complying with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and stay within the guidelines for that. But if the record companies do have issues with the ringtones on the site, we will monitor the ringtones and remove certain if needed.
AM: Do the quality of the ringtones differ on the site?
NS: It definitely does depending on which phone service you have. AT&T has a MP3 format, which is different then let’s say Verizon’s technology- which uses a different format for their ringtones. With the IPhone, users have to sync their phones through their ITunes account- which always makes for different quality of the ringtones. Right now, about 80 percent of all phones are compatiable with our ringtones.
AM: What are some of Bongotones ideas for the future?
NS: We are in the works of creating a wallpaper application, as well as connecting the ringtone with personal pictures as well that you can upload to your phone. Within the next year, we hope to launch video applications as well as game applications. We also want to partner with social networking sites more and more music websites. Our goal for this to be the norm when it comes to ringtones and be able to communicate with artists about their CD’s, tour dates and provide mobile music news to fans.
To check out Bongotones and all the applications and ringtones the site currently has, check out the newly redesigned site at www.bongotones.com.
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