GREET CALLERS WITH YOUR FAVORITE SONGS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

Personalized ringtones are so last year, but cellular-phone companies bet their successor, ringbacks, will bring them big profits.

With the ringback service, callers hear a song of the subscriber's choice when they call, not the standard ring.

T-Mobile added it nationwide Wednesday, following Verizon Wireless' entry in Southern California and Sacramento several weeks ago. A Sprint spokeswoman said the company plans on introducing the feature and both Nextel and Cingular Wireless are evaluating its popularity.

``If I'm a professional and I get a lot of work calls from 9 to 5, I'll want to choose a classical piece, because that suggests professionality,'' said Michael Gallelli, T-Mobile's director of content services.

``If I'm the kind of guy who likes to go out on the town, after 5 p.m., I'm going to set my favorite new dance song. Or I'm madly in love with my wife, I want to play her the most romantic, lovey-dovey song whenever she calls, which would be 'Bridge Over Troubled Water.'''

Fee schemes for the service vary by provider, with a monthly usage fee and additional charges each time a user picks a new song. Though the market's too new to evaluate, its ringtone predecessors account for $4 billion in worldwide annual revenue.

Driven by the much-coveted youth market, cell phones have evolved beyond just vocal communication devices. Whether it comes in the form of a personalized case, a dangling charm or a replay of Destiny's Child or Frank Sinatra songs, Sprint spokeswoman Kathleen Dunleavy said phones have become a statement of individualism.

``Everyone's got a cell phone, so how do you set yourself apart?'' she said. ``We all know how personally tied people are to their music, where it's part of themselves. It's all about making this your own.''

Record labels, eager to leverage their recordings into additional revenue, signed on to make tens of thousands of songs available to cellular companies. With the traditional music market's future clouded by online piracy, mobile music in the form of ringbacks, ring tones and downloadable videos, provides a much-needed new revenue stream.

``Mobile music's very exciting for us,'' said Michael Nash, a senior vice president with Warner Music Group, which licenses to both T-Mobile and Verizon.

``This could be 20 percent of our business in a few years, $1 billion in the U.S. by 2008 and $10 billion worldwide. We're anxious to drive the business to mobile through products like ringback.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com