Skype launch ringtone service

Get playback tunes for your VoIP phone

26 April 2006 10:08 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Skype is to start selling Ringtones from bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers and Madonna, the company announced today.

In a move away from its core business, the Internet telephony company owned by eBay announced that it has signed licensing agreements for world-wide distribution rights to potentially hundreds of thousands of musical works as ringtones for Skype.

The agreements are with three major music publishing companies EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and Warner/Chappell Music and the UK's collecting society for author/publisher rights, the MCPS-PRS Alliance.

The new licenses will allow Skype to lawfully distribute master tones from the roster of current partner Warner Music Group.

World-renowned recording artists from Warner Music Group can now be downloaded as ringtones to Skype users in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Poland and within weeks to the rest of Skype's more than 94.6 million registered users worldwide.

The company is hoping that today's agreements will also pave the way for agreements with additional music recording companies.

In the coming months, consumers will be able to download master ringtones from WMG artists including Madonna, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers and many more to Skype for play back when Skype users receive incoming calls.