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.

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

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

Cell phone ring tones and video games are huge, says 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 Tuscaloosa street named for the late coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, Alabama Bookstore Inc. sells all sorts of gizmos embedded with chips that play "Yea, Alabama" at the push of a button.

Manager Hal Thurmond says he's had bottle openers that play it, stuffed elephants, door chimes, house phones, and key chains.

The list goes on. A few pennies of the price of each licensed product go to Carlin America. Golden says Alabama's song is a top seller, along with the University of Florida's song, "The Orange and the Blue."

Golden says his firm relies on the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers -- ASCAP -- and similar organizations to police the use of its music.