When she first got her phone about a decade ago her first step was to visit the site of her service provider and buy ringsongs.

"I believe I downloaded around 10 or more in that time, and they cost $5 or $6 each." May, who's now 22, reminisces about her shopping spree in her teens. "And after that, my dad was handed an unpaid telephone bill."

Then, the cost was worth the cost of having access to new music through her mobile.

"When new songs released I would download the songs ... regardless of what was trending at the moment," she told CNN. But, "the majority of the songs that I download, I never played. I do remember listening to them however I don't recall ever using them, since most of the time , I was in school or at work."

However, around 2009, she stopped being interested in buying ringtones at all. It wasn't just her. one. Her personal experiences mirror that of what has been an stark decrease in sales of ringtones in the past half-decade.

In the mid- to mid-2000s the ability to set a specific sound to incoming callstypically a couple of seconds of a popular track, referred to as"mastertone "mastertone" was a popular idea for people who bought their first phones. Ringtones quickly became a fashion accessory, as people rushed to make their phones more personal with the latest or most popular songs.

Mastertones were akin to the radio. the radio, which made the sound of the ringtone a simple and enjoyable method of hearing snippets from your favorite songs. It is also possible to assign different ringtones for different callers -- for example, "Take This Job and Shove It" when your boss calls, ha haas a sonic version of Caller ID.

However there was a lot made out of the millions of dollars that ringtone sales brought to a thankful music industry trying to get ready for the new digital world.

"It's an evolution in the way we consume songs ... I recall looking at forecasts in the years 2005 and 2006. They claimed that ringtones were the future of the industry, since the revenue was actually growing from zero," said David Bakula who is the senior vice-president of customer relations and analytics at Nielsen Entertainment.

"It was a fantastic gauge of the way people were beginning to live their lives via their mobiles," he said. "Ringtones were an important component of this."

Ringtones were in high demand because they were among the first audio services that you could download from your phone, according to Richard Conlon, senior vice director of communications, corporate strategy, and new media at Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) which is the music licensing organization.

"There was a massive newness phase that ringtones brought to the market and we hoped during the '04,'05 and '06 years in which things were growing, that we would observe (ringtones) become an entry point product," he said. "We observed the market growing from $68 million in retail sales across the U.S. in '03 to around $600 million in the year."

In 2006 in 2006, the RIAA introduced the first awards system to recognize ringsong sales. The ringtone of Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" has earned the distinction as the most-sold song ever to be a ringtone in 2009, and was 5 times the platinum.

Then sales plummeted. Despite the huge expansion of phones, audio services for mobile devices like ringtones, ringbacks, and ringtones (which is a tune that plays when a caller is waiting to hear a response) generated just $167 million in the year before.

What's the story?

There were two things to note: the excitement in the song snippets eventually wore off. And we also learned how to create customized ringtones at no cost.

Ringtones that are musical can be expensive. Consumers who wanted to own the entire song and also have it be played as their ringtone, had to purchase two separate items. Ringtone prices varied however the 20-30 second fragments of music were generally more expensive than purchasing the full song. A person who changed their ringtones often could easily spend $20 a monthly or even more.

With the development of audio editing software and free Web software that can create ringsongs, people can easily alter sound files to make customized ringtones with their own songs they already own.

As smartphones became more sophisticated with their appealing menu of games, video music, and social media Ringtones were no longer to be as appealing anymore.

"The accessibility of numerous other apps on your smartphone shifts the attention away from the items that were popular prior to," said Bakula of Nielsen. "These various ways in which consumers seek immediate, instant access to a wide range of movies has completely transformed the way we view almost every entertainment genre we monitor. What you experience one day, or even a year, could be totally different the following year. That's what happened with ringtones."

There's another element at work as well. Studies have revealed that while text messaging has grown in popularity, particularly among younger users, they do not make calls as often. Ringtones, therefore, are less of an issue. Download free ringtones for your smartphone. Huge Ringtones Library. Check out Website Many-Ringtones.com

Users of smartphones might not be thinking about them as much but the slow loss of the once lucrative sounding tone has been bittersweet for those working in the music industry.

"Admittedly it was a bit depressing," said BMI's Conlon. "In BMI's early days of digital we earned more through ringtones than any other source as it made up more than half our revenue stream. Now, when you look at it in the context of the ringtone industry is basically dead."