Read between the songs

EIGHT YEARS SINCE AIRTEL launched caller tunes to replace the boring double ring of a phone call, they have become the largest contributor to its mobile value added service (MVAS) revenue, trumping SMS-driven services and games. Airtel claims to be the largest online music store with 1 million tracks and 15 million downloads every month. Retro is the most popular genre, with favourites from music directors such as Nadeem-Shravan, Anu Malik, and Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen outdoing the latest tracks. A.R. Rahman’s signature Airtel tune is also a huge favourite. But it’s the April Fool’s Day prank tune— Jab Dekho Phone Kar Dete Ho—which is No. 1 so far in 2012, having previously been the 2010 topper. According to a report published by the Internet & Mobile Association of India, caller tunes will contribute almost 32% of the estimated Rs 26,000 crore MVAS revenue in 2012. Research firm Strategy Analytics says there were 151.4 million caller tunes users in 2011, with the average spend on them being Rs 33. Last year, close to 700 million tracks were purchased for caller tunes.