The ringtone industry is striking a popular cord with the teenage market. This group, mostly 13 to 24-year-olds, likes to purchase their favorite tune or sound without paying the high price for a CD. This segment isn't afraid to drop lots of discretionary income to download monophonic or polyphonic sounds, which makes the ringtone industry very happy.

According to RealityTVWorld, today's teens are willing to substitute cell phone minutes for the latest ringtone. This behavior places this age group in the largest population of ringtone purchasers. Since over 40% of cell phone users fall into this group and have disposable income, the ringtone industry is making the most of this opportunity. The market is so large among this young population that, according to a study by Wireless World Forum, young people are spending eight times more on mobile phones than music. Trends in the U.K. show that the ringtone market holds 10% of the total music market. This population's buying power is equally impressive in the United States where teenagers spend nearly as much on ringtones as on text messaging. The sale of ringtones worldwide adds up to $3.5 billion, according to IT Facts online.

Naturally, the music industry isn't highly thrilled about this shift in sales from the more expensive CD to much less expensive ringtones -- even though the publisher or songwriter of the music or tone is entitles to royalties. Still, a ringtone royalty isn't quite as high of a percentage as a CD royalty. Some future analysts of this market are predicting that the mobile phone and ringtone industry are going to dip even farther into the music industry by giving mobile phones technology similar to iPods.