America's Cellphones are Ringing with the Seasonal Sounds of Holiday Ringtones from Sony BMG Music Entertainment's Commercial Music Group

America's cell phones are ringing with the seasonal sounds of holiday ringtones from SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT's Commercial Music Group (CMG) with Mariah Carey's yuletide classic, "All I Want For Christmas Is You," leading the pack with sales of more than 1.2 million and a new RIAA platinum certification. Last year, when the track struck Gold status, Mariah's holiday gem became the very first seasonal Mastertone to be awarded an RIAA certification.

Other top selling yuletide ringtone titles this year from the CMG include Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby," Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" (released this year), Frank Sinatra's "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!," Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad," "O Holy Night" from South Park, and Vince Guaraldi's "The Charlie Brown Theme." The top seven seasonal ringtones (Mastertone and Ringbacks) from the CMG have sold more than 2.3 million units so far this year.

In 2006, the Top 5 Christmas songs from the CMG accounted for 49% of all Christmas Mastertone sales. Last year, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" brought home an astounding 23% of all seasonal Mastertone sales and 56% of all holiday Ringback sales.

Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is the highest charting Christmas release so far this year on the Billboard Hot Ringmasters chart, where it has reached #3. The song is currently #8 on the Nielsen SoundScan Digital Songs chart and #7 on the Nielsen SoundScan Hot Digital Tracks chart.

"All I Want For Christmas Is You" was first heard as a key track on Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas album. Originally released in 1994, Merry Christmas has gone on to become one of the top-selling holiday collections of all time, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide while earning 5x platinum certification from the RIAA.

SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT's Commercial Music Group is a new division dedicated to capitalizing on the company's strengths in catalog recordings and classical music, and to developing new opportunities in the areas of licensing, strategic marketing and television. SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT's Commercial Music Group includes Legacy Recordings, the Strategic Marketing Group, the Custom Marketing Group, Television, and SONY BMG Masterworks.

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SOURCE: Legacy Recordings

CONTACT: Tom Cording of Legacy Recordings, +1-212-833-4448,
Tom.Cording@sonybmg.com

Web site: http://www.legacyrecordings.com/
http://www.columbiarecords.com/