Polyphonic business is dead

"The polyphonic business, which used to be thriving, is pretty much dead," says Scott Jensen, vice president of global business development at Zingy. "It's now master ringtones and full-song downloads."

This change in format was a disaster for ringtone companies. In the polyphonic age, they licensed the music and created the ringtones, and sold them on wireless operators' networks and phones in return for a cut of the sale.

But with master ringtones, carriers wanted it all. Operators began striking licensing deals and revenue splits directly with record labels, and sold the new ringtones on their own.

"Everybody just got blindsided," says Bryan Biniak, former chief operating offer of YourMobile. "We just got pushed to the side."

Ringtone pioneers branch out to survive - Yahoo! News