The latest cell phones, with their blistering download speeds, promise to accelerate the trend. Today most major labels in South Korea have departments that specialize in mobile phones and new media. Video-streaming services were offered for the first time last spring, which spawned music videos for cell phones. With more than 32 million cell-phone subscribers in Korea, the industry’s biggest problem so far has been divvying up the loot. Phone companies take the lion’s share of revenues–as much as 50 percent–with 15 to 25 percent going to labels. The rest goes to content providers, who do the marketing and pay royalties to musicians. Labels may grumble at their cut. But with file sharing eating away at profits, ringtones remain sweet music to their ears.
