[Music]
hey everyone
james here again and today we need to
say goodbye to our old friend
the ringback tone don't know what it is
don't worry
i have an ad for you
[Music]
now when people call you hello instead
of a ring oh i was getting into that
they'll hear a song
that was awesome ring back tones from
verizon wireless let you customize for
specific callers
pick anything from hot hot heat to
simply red
[Music]
log on now if you were a teenager in the
early 2000s then you no doubt remember
ring back tones the invention of them
seemed like something that would never
leave us all of a sudden
you could stop hearing that boring old
ringtone that you always heard when you
called somebody's house
throughout all of time up to that point
and instead you could have
10 to 30 seconds of your favorite song
playing for anyone that calls you and it
made for some pretty hilarious moments i
remember
calling some of my friends and hearing
their favorite song and being
a little offended based on some of the
lyrical content but having a good time
knowing that they were really into that
new kanye west song or really into that
new jaw rule song or
really really into that new metallica
song that kind of sounded like crap
given the quality of the recording but
was still cool to hear rather than the
classic ringtone but as they say
all good things must come to an end and
in 2008
the end of ring back tones began that's
when sales started to decline and by
2011 at t did away with the service
altogether
sprint followed suit a few years after
that but the biggest blow to ring back
tones
happened this week at the end of august
2020 when verizon announced that
in two months at the end of october the
company will also do away with ring
backs
now this is huge news because verizon is
actually the mobile carrier
that brought ring back tones to the
masses similar technology was available
before that
but verizon was the first corporation to
make it widely available and cost
effective for consumers to have ring
back tones on their phone
this was a huge deal for the music
industry at the time because
ringtones were already generating over a
billion dollars a year and ring back
tones
only added millions and millions of
dollars more to that giant pile of money
that was essentially just selling clips
of songs that you never really owned
they just existed on your phone and then
you would stop using them
it was a great way for the music
industry to make money and tons of pop
and r b
artists made a ton of money selling ring
back tones but
our culture has changed i mean when's
the last time that you worried about
your ringtone when's the last time you
even had your ringtone on
i know for me my phone's probably been
on silent or on vibrate for at least
five years and most of my friends would
probably tell you the same thing
we don't turn to the phone when we want
to talk to our friends anymore we turn
to social media
we text them we use whatsapp we use kik
we use snapchat
we use facebook messenger instagram dms
whatever
we don't call people unless it's an
emergency and when you're calling
somebody because of an emergency
you don't really want to hear [ __ ] when
you're about to tell somebody that your
grandma has died it's just
not from the top make a job that's so
wet that's something i get a bucket in a
mob that's some wet that's so bad i'm
talking
[Music]
it just doesn't work in the culture
anymore we've moved past it and that's
what happens with technology but it's
still sad to see it go so
i want to say farewell ring back tones
we hardly knew you we spent a lot of
money on you
and we have nothing to show for it but
for a moment you really mattered so much
so
that you even became a gag in an episode
of the cleveland show
check it out mobile
hands-free safer please enjoy the music
while your party is
but if you want more news about the
music business because trends are
changing all the time what's popular
today will be gone tomorrow
and what's leading sales today will very
well be done away with entirely
in 15 to 16 years whatever you want to
learn about the music business
you can do so right here on the music
biz channel so go ahead
and click the subscribe button down
below and if you've already done that
well then you have my sincerest thanks
i cannot believe that you want to be a
part of this community but i am so
grateful that you choose to be
and i'll leave you with this take care
of yourself
because you deserve it