Astronomical amount of money Crazy Frog character made at height of its fame
No, you haven't accidentally clicked on an article from the mid-2000s, we are still in 2024 but here we are, back talking about Crazy Frog.
The iconic, annoying, weird animated character that took the world by storm with its irritating song is still as recognisable today as it was 20-odd years ago, on people's flip phones.
With that came unprecedented success for its creator, but how much success exactly?
Well one thing is certain - nobody picked up on the fact that the viral sensation actually had his literal penis out the whole time, and it was a devastating moment for everyone when it was recently discovered.
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Crazy Frog reached the peak of the UK music charts back in 2005 with an annoying yet catchy cover of 'Axel F', the theme to Beverly Hills Cop, with the frog making 'ding ding' sounds and riding a motorbike, a sight you may be familiar with from hit TV show The Inbetweeners. Thanks, Jay Cartwright.
The video went viral on YouTube later on, but it found its initial success for being the ringtone of choice for several members of the UK public.
It spawned a lot of wannabe-annoying animated animals singing covers to popular songs, a trend that is best left in the past, but the original was the ringtone of the year in 2005.
It took 31 percent of the British ringtones market, which was worth £133 million according to accounting firm KPMG, meaning that it made more than £40 million that year alone.
The company that supplied the ringtone were later penalised for not specifying to customers that they weren't paying £5 for the ringtone, but subscribing to a £5 per week subscription service.
The youth of the 2000s drove the success of Crazy Frog, as the height of personalised ring tones was in full swing by 2005, later dying out as the 2010s came around.
At the time, experts estimated that mobile music would generate £4 billion worldwide in 2006 - if only they knew about the monster that was music streaming, that was still yet to come.
Overall, the song was downloaded 11 million times across Europe in 2005, further boosted by a whopping £3 million TV advertising campaign.
The man responsible for planting the idea of the character was a 17-year-old Swede called Daniel Malmedahl in 1998, who wanted the specific sound of a two-stroke engine revving up.
He asked graphic artist Erik Wernquist for help, and he invented Crazy Frog with the irritating noise we recognise today, in a clip called 'Annoying Thing'.
But to cast your minds back to 2005, other popular ring tones at the time were 'Feel Good Inc.' by The Gorillaz, 'Lonely' by Akon, 'You're Beautiful' by James Blunt and 'Candy Shop' by 50 Cent, to name a few.
Feel old yet?
Topics: Music, TV, Weird, Technology
Joshua Nair