With singles sales in decline, the latest ringtone has become an essential sign of playground cool among children who would appear to have abandoned record shops.

Accordingly, the first official pop chart based on mobile phone ringtones was published yesterday.

Eamon, the New York R&B singer, is the first to top the chart with I Don’t Want You Back, also the year’s best-selling CD single so far.

Last year the value of CD single sales fell by 33.6 per cent to £64.4 million. Analysts estimate that £90 million was spent in Britain on ringtones in 2003.

A price of up to £4 for an often poorly reproduced ringtone has been no deterrent to children, although parents are noticing significant charges on their monthly bills. But the ringtones chart could spell doom for the official Top 40. Ringtones are a £1.5 billion global industry and already account for 10 per cent of all music sales. Last year EMI earned £7.3 million in ringtone publishing revenues and expects that figure to double this year.

The financial services company KPMG has calculated the first industry-sanctioned ringtones chart, which will appear fortnightly from sales reported by the main licensees of phone tracks. The Top 20 reveals a surprise entry for composer Danny Elfman’s enduring theme tune for The Simpsons; England’s Euro 2004 song, All Together Now is a ringtones hit before its official release as a single; and the 17-year-old Guns N’ Roses track Paradise City is also a Top 20 entry.

Although the Mobile Entertainment Forum, which publishes the chart, will not release sales figures, it is believed that Eamon’s No 1 achieved more sales than the 36,440 copies recorded by this week’s top CD single by Frankee.

However, a pop scene dominated by ringtones could change the way that music is recorded. A new generation of handsets offer CD-quality samples and a ringtones hit usually requires a catchy chorus. R&B and rap are popular ringtone genres, while Norah Jones-style ballads and songs with sophisticated melodic development often fail to pass the immediacy test. Katie Melua and Dido sell millions of albums, but are not expected to drive the ringtones market.

American artists dominate the R&B scene and the first ringtones Top 20 features just two British acts — the rapper known as The Streets, along with the England football song.

The British Phonographic Industry has also sanctioned the first singles chart based on legal internet downloads, which will begin this autumn.

A combined ringtones and download chart could eventually merge with the Top 40 CD singles chart. The music industry, decimated by illegal downloading, is now bullish about its future. The BPI said: “The way music fans access single tracks is changing dramatically and it’s important that ringtones are supported by an official UK chart. With truetones (real song samples, rather than polyphonic reproductions) occupying an increasing share of the market, ringtones can be a real growth area for the record industry.”

There will be gold and platinum discs awarded for ringtone sales achievements, just as with the singles chart, and KPMG is already planning offshoots, including a chart for Bollywood ringtones.

Calum Chace, director of KPMG, said: “We can expect to see different songs topping the ringtones chart and traditional music charts, as they are bought for different purposes.

“The ringtone chart is ahead of the singles chart in some cases — film and television themes are very popular. As this chart evolves, it will track the convergence of fashion, fads and phones.”

Distribution companies participating in the chart include Amplefuture, a British company that provides “piracy-proof” mobile entertainment content for organisations including AOL, Telewest and Microsoft.

Musicians can now expect to earn a living from hit ringtones under the Digital Rights Management technology used by Amplefuture. Artists will receive publishing and performancer royalties from every download.

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