Crazy About 'Crazy Frog'
A ring tone meant to mimic a motorbike has been made into a CD so popular it's outselling many of music's biggest names on British charts, reports CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth. But, he adds, what's music to the ears of some is just plain annoying to others.
Downloading musical ring tones is all the rage among cell phone users: Some 25 million people downloaded them in April alone. Now a ring tone meant to mimic a motorbike, irritating many people, has inspired others to release it as a single.
They're reaping huge profits, Roth says, from the ring-tone-inspired hit, "Crazy Frog."
It has bumped rock groups Cold Play and Oasis from the top of the British pop charts: 150,000 copies sold in a few days of what's not quite a song and, notes Roth, not quite universally admired.
"I have mixed feelings about the 'Crazy Frog,' " one Londoner told Roth. "Initially, I thought, 'Okay, I can probably handle that.' But now, after complete domination of the television, I actually do wanna kill it!"
"Crazy Frog," though, is said to have made more than $18 million for the company that sells the ring tone version.
The crossover from cell phone to CD single may be a milestone for the music business, Roth observes, or it may simply demonstrate a new potential for cell phones to become really annoying.
Even the man who created the frog and the song says he's now sick of seeing it, and hearing it, Roth points out.