Europeans just don't get ringback tones. But could the involvement of D2C companies change all that?
I have a friend with a ringback tone. There, bet that shocked you. When you call him, you get a faux-naive female voice sweetly intoning 'you're calling Richard'.
And what's your first thought when you hear it? Bloody voicemail. Yep, we Europeans just don't get ringbacks. It's one of the defining characteristics of our continent, along with great architecture and colonial misdeeds.
But is this anti ringback feeling culturally ingrained? Or have ringbacks just been mis-sold – or not sold at all.
I had cause to ponder this subject last week at the Mobile Web 2.0 Summit when a delegate proposed that there are certain cultural norms which dictate that some ideas never take off in some countries. His comment prompted one of the livelier debates of the day.
By coincidence I recently had a meeting with a company that is single-handedly committed to proving everyone wrong about Europe's dismissal of the ringback.
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Muzicall believes there are two simple reasons why European ringback adoption is barely two per cent, while Korea's is 55 per cent. First, the operators have failed to market them properly. Second, the market won't take off until off-portal firms (Jamba, Buongioro, MTV) are given the chance to sell them and get a rev share for doing so.
The firm makes a persuasive argument. Fact is, operators have an abysmal record in ringbacks (or answertones or callertunes, etc – can't even decide what to call them). And Jamba et al would love to have a legitimate subscription product to offer. After all, you can keep your ringtone when you text 'stop', but an unsubscribed ringback ceases to exist.
Muzicall wants to get in the middle of all these different players, taking over the marketing from operators, giving retailers a new product to sell, and giving consumers a coherent product that they can purchase regardless of which network they are with.
The firm is already working with Orange UK and others, and disclosed some impressive figures to me. It also has its sights on ad-funded services and the corporate market. There's a chance to hear more from Muzicall at ME's Mobile Music Now conference next month, of which it is a sponsor.
But what about that voicemail issue? Transient, says Muzicall. As soon as ringbacks proliferate, the confusion will dissolve.
If Muzicall is correct all talk of cultural barriers will dissolve too. Apart from the one that divides me and callers who don't like my brand of angular jazz: i.e everyone.
