That figure nearly doubles the very respectable 1.6 million digital downloads the same track has sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and the 686 000 cd albums that T-Pain album Epiphany has moved since its debut on June 23 this year.

T-Pain is not new in the ringtone business as his first album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, sold 597,000 copies on the strength of the hit single I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper). According to the label, the song sold more than 5 million ringtones, 4 million of them in less than five months—making it the fastest-selling ringtone in Sony BMG history and earning it a 2006 BMI Urban Music Award as ringtone of the year.

But the Konvict Music (Akon’s imprint) artist says that he can’t really explain what makes a track a successful ringtone : "I don’t concentrate on it," he said. "When I’m in the studio, I don’t finish the song and say, ’That’s going to be a big ringtone.’ I don’t know if a song is going to be a hit or it’s going to flop. I never know. I just do the music and if people like it, they like it."

"I had people at Jive tell me they didn’t believe in my product and let me know that they didn’t too much care," he said at the time. "But selling 6.7 million ringtones (for ’Stripper’ and another single, ’I’m Sprung,’ combined) changed their minds."

Since then, T-Pain has charted 12 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, 5 of which were in the top 10, and sophomore effort Epiphany debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Yet T-Pain was still surprised when lightning struck twice, with "Drank" moving similar ringtone sales.

If T-Pain himself can’t really explain his successful ringtones, the labels tend to look at their artists as one of three types—those who sell CDs, those who sell digital downloads and those who sell ringtones.

"We kind of map out the artist," explains Jeff Dodes, senior vice president of Jive Records’ Digital Business Division. "We create a pie chart and (determine) where the artist fits and then move our planning accordingly...a hip-hop or urban artist is generally going to lean more mobile when you break it down, or maybe mobile with physical, and digital will be the big gap."

Ok, so T-Pain is a ringtone artist on a business standpoint. As well as Stripper did as a ringtone, it sold less than 1 million digital downloads. Meanwhile, female pop artists like Britney Spears or Pink sell fewer ringtones but do very well with digital downloads. Country acts skew lower in ringtones and downloads but have the best physical sales.

"When you get a track that hits urban, R&B and then goes to pop, potentially, that’s an explosive sales situation from a ringtone standpoint," Dodes said.

And if you think that T-Pain has any problem with being known as a ringtones seller, you’ve certainly forget that he is an artists first and foremost : "As long as someone wants to hear my music, I don’t care if it’s a ringtone or the album or whatever."