Apple struck gold selling ringtones when they released the iPhone in 2007. Back in the 2000s, ringtones were a huge deal. Because phones were limited in their capabilities, there weren’t many options for personalization. Companies saw an opportunity to fill the gap and give users something to customize their phones — that’s how premium ringtones were born.
By 2004, the ringtone market was a global billion-dollar industry. Per a now-archived New York Times article, Verizon charged $3 for ringtones, while T-Mobile and Sprint wanted $2.50. Even at these prices, users could not modify the tunes — there was no option to select the part of the audio they wanted to use as a ringtone, nor could they loop or make any such changes. Depending on the provider, these payments were sometimes time-limited, and the ringtones would need to be repurchased after they expired. Sprint ringtones expired after 90 days, and Verizon’s lasted for a year.
Here’s where things got interesting: Apple came onto the ringtones scene in 2007 and disrupted the industry with a new sales model. iPhone users could purchase full-length songs from iTunes for $0.99, then pay an additional $0.99 to convert the song to a 30-second ringtone, bringing the total cost to $1.98. For the time, this was quite revolutionary — not only were customers paying less than two dollars but the full-length song was included. They could edit the songs to select start and end points, make loops, and make other customization decisions.
