MyNuMo Beta Launch - Mobile Personal and Social Media Marketplace: "Newly launched on Cingular's network and going live on T-mobile USA next week MyNuMo provides a marketplace for anyone to create content and sell their, ringtone, .wallpaper, text or video content to everyone else."

Interesting idea - and not the first create-your-own-ringtone service, I'm sure. But how does MyNuMo work with the owners of rights? I'd bet that most popular ringtones are based on music from the charts - or at least music written by someone other than the owner of the ringtone. The publishing and performance rights for these sounds are owned by record labels, no? In which case how will they react when music purchasers start recording their own CDs and making their own ringtones, cutting out the label?

As Jon Davis of BMG said a while back: "People will just take the CDs they buy from Woolworths, rip them to MP3 and transfer them to their devices. For the handset to then pop up a text offering to convert it to a ringtone is a real danger.'"

Comments

[Pete]

Would that be Jon Davis, formerly of iCrunch?

[Tom Hume]

It would :)

[William Volk]

All content is reviewed on myNuMo before being offered for sale. This is why we have approved billing on major US Carriers.

The ringtones submissions are original music and comedy, we also provide a on-line mixer to make it easy for anyone to compose their own ringtones.

[Tom Hume]

I didn't realise MyNuMo was one of your babies, William :)

So it's not possible for users to create ringtones based on music they've purchased using your service?

[William Volk]

There's a mixer, check it out, that allows you to create tones based on a library we licensed for that purpose. A web based multitrack mixer.

Here's a pic:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/bikingbill/MusicMixer3.jpg

We also have a IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system where you call a 800 number and can record a tone.

The goal is to empower artists to tap into the mobile digital content market, but it could be as simple as making a funny tone for your friends. One reason we have 'private' content as well as public.

The copyright requirements are driven by the carriers. We made the decision that having on-the-phone billing (as opposed to credit cards) was important since mobile customers expect that.

[Tom Hume]

Sorry, just realised my question was unclear.

Can I take a CD I have bought, upload music from it into your service, and make a ringtone from it?

[William Volk]

Q: Can I take a CD I have bought, upload music from it into your service, and make a ringtone from it?

A: No. We're not allowed to do that. We would need approvals from the music publishers and the carriers AND a method for determining that you had the CD. Would love to have a solution to that issue.

Wasn't this the original model for MP3.com, which was shut down in the courts?

[PrincessE]

With the boom in YouTube.com by allowing people to post their own video, I hope to see the same happening from personal ringtones or wallpapers. Might just be interesting.

[William Volk]

An amazing amount of content has already shown up in the last week since the 'formal' launch. There's some really unique "long tail" content on there, along with what you would expect in popular music and video.