The Loudest Ringtone: Hello? It's 50 Cent Calling. Collect

[SNaKe]

While sales of new CD's remain bleak, the music industry is finding a small degree of consolation in the explosive growth of ringtones. This year alone, enough mobile phone users downloaded the tones to rack up retail sales of about $602 million in the United States, more than double the $277 million racked up in 2004, according to a Jupiter Research analysis. Ringtones aren't a large piece of the $12 billion American music industry, but the mobile sector is one of the few in which executives foresee growth.

The business is becoming even more lucrative as consumers shift from buying polyphonic ringtones (those usually tinny, synthesized reproductions of songs) to the more expensive master tones (which are copies of the actual recording).

Ringtones of rap songs have sold particularly strongly, and best sellers this year include Mike Jones's "Back Then" and Lil Jon's "Lovers & Friends," according to mobile and music executives. It's no surprise that one of the biggest - "Candy Shop" - comes from 50 Cent, whose album "The Massacre" ranks as the year's top CD.

While the structure of a deal for the ringtone of a song can vary widely depending on the label and mobile service carrier, here is how a sale of "Candy Shop" might break down, based on a retail price of $2.50:

CARRIER Provides the customers; transmits the tones on its network; licenses songs from the music companies; and sometimes pays for advertising. A carrier like Verizon typically receives about $1.12, or 45 percent.

RECORD LABEL Provides the actual song recording. With "Candy Shop," Universal Music's Interscope label must split its share with Dr. Dre and Eminem, who have stakes in 50 Cent's recordings. The parent label receives about $1, or 40 percent of the total, and out of that pays the artist a royalty (with ringtones, the royalty is calculated as if the label were receiving about $1.60, even though it really gets less). So at an estimated 18 percent royalty, 50 Cent would receive about 29 cents.

MUSIC PUBLISHER Licenses the underlying composition on behalf of the songwriter (who may not also be the artist who records the song). "Candy Shop" was co-written by 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, and the producer Scott Storch. Universal Music Publishing, which administers 50 Cent's songs, and TVT Music Publishing, which handles Mr. Storch's, split the publisher's cut and then pay their writers. The publishers collectively receive about 25 cents, or 10 percent. From that share, the writers are each estimated to receive between 9 cents and 11 cents.

PERFORMANCE SOCIETY Collects money for songwriters when their works are played publicly. A fight has broken out among the major players about how much the societies should get, but the one that represents 50 Cent, ASCAP, would receive an estimated 3.5 percent of the total, or roughly 9 cents.

Since the most popular ringtones can sell more than 1 million units apiece, a hit single should generate at least enough to pay a couple of months' worth of phone bills.