October 2007

The 2007 Esquire 100
No. 20: Jacking Ringtones

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September 4th, 2007

RCRWireless.com–
Extremely Personal

Ringbacks, caller tags push personalization to new levels, garner attention from startups
...Meanwhile, Emotive Communications Inc. is powering a kind of reverse ringtone for Skype users. The Encino, Calif.-based company is behind Skype's Ringjacker, which allows users to create their own voice tones or pick from a library of tunes and sound effects.
Emotive claims it has seen nearly 2 million downloads of the application since its launch last year, and in April pocketed $7.7 million in a funding round from Warner Music Group and other investors...
...Emotive's "Push Ringer" can feature audio, video, animations, avatars or Flash files, and can include a clickable link to the Web site of an artist or record label. The company has a mobile prototype for smartphones and is working to make the application available on Java- and BREW-enabled handsets.
"People can download the application for free, and we have advertisements and promotions rolling through" the service, said Emotive CEO Anthony Stonefield, who founded the ringtone storefront Moviso in 1993. "I think the beauty for the record company is that (Push Ringer) will deliver visual, audio and Web impressions."

January 4th, 2007

MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE–
Ringtone becomes flingtone

A new 'pushable' ringtone, from start-up Emotive, could herald next phase of the $5 billion ringtone market.
The tone – nicknamed a flingtone – will be demonstrated in prototype form at 3GSM next month. A version of the product, called Ringjacker, has just been released for VoIP as part of the new Skype 3.0 software.
Ringjacker is being launched by Emotive Communications, a start-up headed by Anthony Stonefield, who founded the US ringtone pioneer Moviso in 1993. Emotive is using the VoIP launch to hone its business model and refine the product in advance of a live launch on  Symbian and Windows by May 2007. More >