100,000 Virgin Mobile USA customers using Ringbacks

Ringbacks haven’t ever had caught the imagination of the public like Ringtones did all those years ago. However they’re still popular — as this news from Virgin Mobile USA demonstrates.

Virgin reports that over 100,000 of their customers are subscribing to the $1.49/month service. You can choose individual ringback tracks for each of your friends. You could, theoretically, force your friend to listen to some absolutely ridiculous music. Or you can shuffle your tracks so that every time your friends call, they hear a different track. Not something I’d use but I can imagine a lot of teenagers loving this — Virgin reports that customers generally subscribe to an average of two tracks.

Each track that you buy costs $1.99 and is ‘good’ for 6 months (i.e. you need to buy it again in 6 months if you want it).

Most popular among Virgin Mobile customers are Ringback Tones in the hip-hop and R&B categories. Some of the top Ringback Tone titles selected by Virgin Mobile customers are: “Shawty Is A 10” (The Dream); “Bed” (J. Holiday); “Heaven Sent” (Keyshia Cole); “Crank That – Tell ‘Em/Ne-Yo Chorus (Soulja Boy); and “Apologize,” (by OneRepublic featuring Timbaland).

I couldn’t spot any of those tunes. Kudos to you if you know what a Timbaland is.