Ringtone Mania: Understanding the Epidemic

The top three reasons we’re crazy for ringtones:

• Customization
  Today, cell phones can be customized to make practically any noise you desire to signal a call. Add personality with a few bucks

• Entertainment
  Wireless phones today are sophisticated machines with a lot of memory and processing power. We can easily change our ringtone and be entertained with little effort.
  
  
• Identification
  By identifying the caller, we can decide whether or not we wish to pick up the phone and distinguish if it’s our phone ringing in a room full of people.

Downloading Free Ringtones
The situation with each carrier and cell phone model is slightly different. North American phones manufactured before 2002 don’t offer downloadable ringtone features. Most cell networks sell their ringtones directly to the customer. Usually they cost a few dollars and offer most ringtones, but many people are turned off by the fact that you’re only downloading a partial song for twice the price to download it. Some carriers today are blocking their handsets to prevent users from downloading free ringtones.

Alternative methods to getting free ringtones include infrared transfers, Bluetooth, Memory card transfer or using your USB cable. Some cell phones require you use software to change the format of the song clip. Software like the Ringtone Converter supports Nokia, Microsoft, Kyocera, Inventec, Ericsson, Alcatel, Audiovoc, Sharp, Sagem, Samsun, Sony, Sendo, Siesmens handsets, OkWap, NEC and more. The Ringtone Converter was originally it was developed for converting ringtones from Nokia to Motorola.  RTTL (Ring Tone Text Transfer Language) is commonly used to describe ringtones in a universal format.

Ringtone Maker Trend
Websites like Phone Sherpa and Phonezoo allow users to make ringtones from tunes they already own (cds, MP3s) Users may load unlimited songs and edit the song clip to play whatever part of the song they want for their ringtone. Another plus of these services is that they automatically detect the phone settings. By detecting your phone settings the file type and format are matched to your cell to achieve the best results.

Some cell models have melody composers, which take samples or loops from a song.  Cell phone models like the Sony Ericsson phones use a program called MusicDJ in their native format. Usually these models support other formats including MP3s and MIDIs but must be downloaded to the phone before being used.

Melody, Tune, Ringtone, Ringer Tone?
Depending on the company, some manufactures label ringtones differently. Many company differentiate ringtones and ringer tones, as the included standard tones in your phone, while melodies or mobile melodies are musical tones composed using a melody composer.

Polyphonic
Polyphonic ringtones play multiple tones of the song using an instrument—like drums, keyboards, or guitars. Instead of music snippets, the instruments play notes of the song. Most new cell phones may hold a dozen or more ringtones; some are not songs, but rather voice recordings.

Ringtone Maker
Websites like Phone Sherpa and RingtoneSoup allow users to make ringtones from music they already own. Users can pick which part of the song they want to feature, and then upload the ringtones directly to their mobile phone. This service allows unlimited song uploads and is steadily gaining popularity because of its customization features and cost efficiency.

Ringtone Trends

Teen Buzz aka Mosquito Ringtone
Inventor Howard Stapleton developed what he called, the “Mosquito Device” which is a 17khz of high frequency sound similar to an insect buzz. This high-pitched ring was originally developed to repel loitering teens from shops in the UK for a security company.  The device emits a high-pitched tone that greatly annoys teens and kids. Most people over twenty years old is unaffected due to Presbycusis or aging ear, which is the normal loss of acute hearing that occurs with age. This technology was used to develop the Teen Buzz which students use in the classroom to be alerted of incoming texts without disturbing the class.

Top Ringtones
Unk’s  “2 Step” has held the top spot for weeks. The “Super Mario Brothers Theme”  by Koji Kondo celebrates its 137th week on the list , and is the third most popular ringtone. That ringtone has been in the top 40 for the last two years. Following the Mario Brothers is Florida native, T-Pains whose song “Buy U A Drank” and Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” make up the top five.  Last summers’ hit, “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent is still in the top ten, but is dropping off. Rascal Flatt’s hit, “What Hurts the Most” has maintained a top spot for several weeks along with Nickelbacks’ “Rockstar” song that has become a weekend anthem. 

Leopard Lure Ringtone
In Ahmedabad, India ringtones are used in the forest of western India to call leopards. Thousands of leopards roam the Indian countryside, but the continued loss of habitat has forced them to have more contact with villagers. Six leopards have been lured into traps by using rooster, cow, and goat ringtones. Today, instead of live bait, speakers are attached in the cages and played at regular intervals at night. After being caught, the leopards are released into the wild unharmed.

Even Within The Same Company, Different Formats
Sprint PCS ringtones are slightly different than Nextel ringtones even though they are now the same company. Sprint cell phones do accept downloadable ringtones sent by SMS and would only allow ringtones by their own line. Fortunately online it’s now common to find free ringtones in the Sprint format. Most Nextel phones are manufactured by Motorola and can accept downloadable ringtones through a wireless connection. 

Ringtone Formats: What the heck are they?
iMelody – Extension .imy, allows volume modifiers, special codes, and other advanced features
Melody- from Melody Composer allows sound customization
KWS - Kyocera's format.
Kyocera 6035 and the Handspring Treo
MID / MIDI - Popular sound format.
Morse code - Text files with a MORSE extension
MOT –Older Motorola format.
MP3 - Some phones support ringtones that are mp3 format.
Nokia / SCKL / OTT
PDB - Palm database. (PDA phones)
RTTTL – common text format
RTX - Similar to RTTL with some additional features.
Samsung1, Samsung2 , Samsung keypress format
Siemens Keypress
Siemens SEO -binary format.
SMAF - format that combines MIDI with instrument sound data (i.e. Module files that have the extension "MMF.")

Things To Remember

• August of 2006, BBC reported that “free ringtones” a likely search item linked to malware. Malware (aka as a virus) is software intended to corrupt or gain access to a computer system without the consent.
• Ringtones can be more costly than downloading the entire song to your computer.
• For most carriers, when you switch phones, the downloaded songs can’t be passed onto the new phone.
• Take advantage of using airwaves, a data cable, or manual key entry in the ringtone program into your phone to save money.
• Double check to make sure the file format is fits your phone.
• If you are downloading tunes from a commercial resource, be sure to read the fine print and make sure you’re only paying for one song and not subscribing to a service.

Free Ringtones - Mobile Media Changed the Music Biz

In 2006, forty percent of digital music revenue stemmed from ringtones. The “Big Four” record labels, SonyBMG, Universal, EMI, and Warner Music, together own over 70 percent of the world’s recorded music. A few years ago music labels were losing money to digital music, but today digital music is an essential.

Ring My Bell
Portable media players have revolutionalized music. Ringtones, ringback tones, music video clips and music karaoke have driven the mobile music industry. SonyBMG recently announced that they are working on new programming with made for mobile channels. The artists themselves will make some of these shows, for example SonyBMG’s first test subject is Avril Lavigne. Her channel is appropriately titled, Avril TV and will include links to buy ring tones, ring back tones, screensavers and more.

Stay In the Know
Recently, Virgin Mobile USA has become the first domestic wireless carrier to create an interactive mobile music magazine. Customers can demand access to concert dates, artist news, charts, and interactive searches. This downloadable mobile application gives users access to a database of thousands of artists and band from any genre. In 2006, Virgin Mobile customers downloaded over 14.8 million ringtones. In just the first quarter of 2007, the company has sold more than 4.6 million ringtones and is celebrating selling its 50 millionth ringtone.

Skype & Warner
In April, Skype, a peer-to-peer telephony network, which allows you to make calls from everywhere unlimited for free, partnered with Warner music to feature personalized ringtones. Skype was acquired by eBay in September 2005, and serves over 70 million users worldwide. Currently, Skype is the word’s fastest developing Internet communication. Warner music downloads are now available to US customers. Each snippet will cost $1.50 each and are promoted on its online retail store. Soon to be featured artists include: Madonna, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Greenday and many others.