Performing right organization Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) today released its annual mobile music market projections 2008. The company predicts that ringbacktones, musical works that are performed to the caller when they place a call to a participating mobile subscriber, will surpass $210 million in US retail sales during the calendar year 2008, up 50% from BMI’s 2007 market estimate of $140 million. On the other hand, BMI predicts the US ringtone market will decline from $550 million in 2007 to $510 million this year. "The market for ringbacktones has grown stronger than we originally forecasted last year," said Richard Conlon, VP, new media and strategic development, BMI. "Its growth, coupled with the positive gains that streaming mobile media have made in 2008 alone, supports our bullish point of view on the growth of the mobile entertainment business. We see gains in mobile audio and mobile television style services in the coming years as well."

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