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Ringtone to be released as UK music single
By Laura Rohde

Many popular songs have been turned into mobile phone ringtones, but the tables have been turned and a ringtone is set to be released in the U.K. as a music single in April.

The distinctive "Crazy Frog" ringtone is described on the crazyfrog.co.uk Web site as sounding like "someone pretending to make race car noises" and has been downloaded 1 million times, according to Republic Media, the London-based public relations company promoting the single.

A group calling itself Pondlife took the ringtone and turned it into a song called "Crazy Frog Chorus," which will be released in the U.K. by Tug Records on April 4. One of the four members of Pondlife is Wes Butters, a DJ on British Broadcasting Co.'s (BBC) Radio One, who warned the music listening public the song will be polarizing.

Tug Records, in Fuerth, Germany, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The ringtone has been heavily promoted in the U.K. though television advertisements featuring an animated silver frog with rolling bug eyes and a severe underbite who wears a motorcycle helmet, goggles and vest.

Ringtone downloads account for 10 percent of the world's music market, or US$3 billion in business annually, according to Text Media Ltd.

Posted February 17, 2005 05:23 PM |