T-Pain takes crown as king of ringtones

By Antony Bruno

DENVER (Billboard) - Enter most any dance club and odds are you'll soon hear "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" by R&B sensation T-Pain before the night is through.

But the hit single gets most of its spins as a 30-second clip.

"Buy U a Drank" is the best-selling mastertone of 2007, according to Nielsen RingScan, moving more than 2.3 million units year to date. That figure nearly doubles the very respectable 1.6 million digital downloads the same track has sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and completely dwarfs the 686,000 CDs that the album it supports -- "Epiphany" -- has moved since its debut June 23.

For the Jive Records artist, this is a familiar story. His first album, "Rappa Ternt Sanga," sold 597,000 copies on the strength of the hit single "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)." According to the label, the song sold more than 5 million ringtones, 4 million of them in less than five months -- making it the fastest-selling ringtone in Sony BMG history and earning it a 2006 BMI Urban Music Award as ringtone of the year.

It's something T-Pain himself can't explain.

"I don't concentrate on it," he said. "When I'm in the studio, I don't finish the song and say, 'That's going to be a big ringtone.' I don't know if a song is going to be a hit or it's going to flop. I never know. I just do the music and if people like it, they like it."

ESSENTIAL BUSINESS

The Southern soulster does give credit to ringtones -- in addition to a close relationship with hip-hop/R&B hitmaker Akon -- as a significant factor behind his success. In a May Billboard interview, T-Pain said it was his ringtone sales that forced his label to support his first album.

"I had people at Jive tell me they didn't believe in my product and let me know that they didn't too much care," he said at the time. "But selling 6.7 million ringtones (for "Stripper" and another single, "I'm Sprung," combined) changed their minds."

Since then, T-Pain has charted 12 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, five of which were in the top 10, and sophomore effort "Epiphany" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Yet T-Pain was still surprised when lightning struck twice, with "Drank" moving similar ringtone sales.

"I didn't know any song could generate ringtone sales like that," he said. "I didn't think the ringtone game could be so essential to the industry."

T-Pain's success in the mobile field is the result of a delicate balance of science and opportunity that involves an army of promotions, A&R, mobile marketing and other executives at Jive Records and parent company Sony BMG, who help drive these sales to their impressive totals.

Whether it's T-Pain or any artist in the label catalog, every element of a ringtone is closely studied -- from which portion of the song is used, to when it is released to wireless operators, to how many subsequent remixes of the track are created to maintain sales momentum.

CLOSELY MANAGED

Making up 40 percent or more of major labels' digital revenue, ringtones are far too "vitally important," according to Jeff Dodes, senior vice president of Jive Records' digital business unit, to simply leave up to chance. Examining T-Pain's record ringtone run illustrates exactly how it all breaks down.