College fight songs ring up ringtone profits

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama football fans can buy pens, ties, video games, phones and socks that play the Crimson Tide's fight song, and a New York company is humming the tune all the way to the bank.

In an unusual mix of athletics and consumer electronics, college sports fans are helping boost the bottom line for a Manhattan-based music publisher that's selling rights to fight songs for use in an array of new products.

Analysts say the boom is part of a major trend in the music industry, where publishing companies are reaping the benefits of the digital music that's become the soundtrack to life thanks to microprocessors and streaming sound.

"Recorded music is becoming a ubiquitous feature. I think we have not even begun to witness the top of this yet," said Aram Sinnreich of Radar Research, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm.

Carlin America purchased the rights to the fight songs of Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana State and about 95 other universities when it acquired another publishing company in 1999.

Now it's making about $100,000 annually selling rights to fight songs played by all sorts of gadgets for fans. While schools make money licensing their names and slogans for products like T-shirts, they generally don't profit from their own fight songs.

Cellphone ring tones and video games are huge, said Bob Golden, vice president of marketing at Carlin America. But the shelves of a shop catering to Alabama fans show just how far the business can go.

Located on a street named for the late coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, Alabama Bookstore sells all sorts of gizmos embedded with chips that play Yea, Alabama at the push of a button.

"We've had bottle openers that play it, stuffed elephants, door chimes, house phones, and key chains," said manager Hal Thurmond.

The list goes on: "We've had door bells, car horns, small footballs you might give a kid, watches, door mats and a golf club head cover. We've got a baby mobile with little elephants that's supposed to boost your child's school spirit. It's $39.95."