Motorola's «Motomixer»

Following the widespread introduction of polyphonic ringtones, Motorola is taking tune technology one step further with the launch of MotoMixer, a feature that lets phone users mix their own ringtones.

With this software, an embedded application currently available on Motorola's C330 handset, and featured on the new Motorola C350, the younger generation it's appealing to, can essentially be a DJ on their own phone, adding bass or easing up up on the drums, ensuring that "no one else will have the same ringtone".

Motomixer also is available on the company's Hello Moto Web site in an effort to create "a viral community" focused on the mixing of ringtones, according to Alberto Moriondo, director of global entertainment solutions at Motorola, "We are making it easier for consumers to do their own mixes. When users can personalize the content, it creates more interest and boosts sales of mobile applications," he added, in an interview with Wireless Newsfactor.

«True Tones»

According to an article in the Malaysian Star Online, the new Nokia 3300 which should be available in the second half of 2003, comes with a feature called «True Tones», a new format for ringtones which will enable users to use real audio clips as a ring signal, moving away from the original beeps and Midi files of older phones.

Nokia 3650 includes 40 polyphonic ringtones

The successor to Nokia's first Series 60 phone is hitting the stores, the Nokia 3650, enabling users to take pictures or video with the built-in camera and then sharing them with friends or family through multimedia messaging technology. Users can also play video clips and movie trailers with streaming or local playback But of interest to this column, is the fact that it is described as "audio-wise", delivering perfectly acceptable audio both through its loudspeaker and a headset and, according to an article in Infosync, has 40-voice polyphonic ringtones in it's menu to choose from.

Make a statement about the War on your cellphone

Ringtone and logo provider FabMobile, supporting UK, US and Canadian customers, has put together a collection of ringtones and logos to enable users to show how they feel about the war in Irak, whether they are for or against it. Zingy.com is clearly pro war and suggests users support America by downloading the ringtone of the US National Anthem (Monophonic or polyphonic) and adorning their cellphone screens with the American flag.

Dialtone Concerts

Precious information picked up on Smart Mobs, linking an Informal Catalogue of cell phone concerts performed around the world.

A collection gathered by American composer Golan Levin who initiated the first original ««Dialtones Symphony»», where the 200 instruments played were the audience's ringing cell phones. The concert took place on September 2nd, 2001, at the Brucknerhaus Auditorium in Linz, Austria during the Ars Electronica's annual festival. Golan Levin performed his symphony again in the summer of 2002, at the Arteplage Mobile de Jura as a production of the Swiss National Exposition.

Of note in Golan's catalogue, «Japanese Whispers», where "about 10-20 cellphones are laid nose-to-toe in a circle. Ambient sound and the voices of the participants are input into the cellphone mouthpieces. Sound is propagated through the phones, becoming delayed and distorted in the resulting feedback loop".

Downloading ringtones to raise money

The Managing director of Johnson & Johnson in the Philippines has come up with an innovative campaign to help the cause of battered women and raise money, according to an article in The Manilla Bulletin Online.

For every downloaded logo or ringtone, a portion goes to the Women's Crisis Center (WCC), serving as a half-way house and a counseling center for female victims and survivors of violence.

It brings to mind another fund raising campaign by downloading -- not a ringtone -- just a logo, in June 2001, for nationwide "Red Nose Day" in Australia, to help raise money for research into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Australian telecommunications giant Telstra offered its clients a Red Nose logo and donated US$0.95 to SIDS Australia for each logo that was downloaded. (cf Donating by SMS).

Toons and Ringtones face copyright issues

In an interesting article in Wired, Elisa batista reports from the CTIA in New Orleans on how cell-phone makers are pushing the ability to share pictures, video and audio content wirelessly for a fee, but haven't yet resolved how to keep cell-phone users from passing that paid content on to all their friends.

While industry representatives say piracy and illegal file sharing aren't rampant -- yet -- the issue has received attention, even from legislators.

Digital-rights management will definitely be an issue, especially with regard to the music industry.

As early as 2001, British software company, Envisional (specializing in copyright protection), issued a warning to the music industry, claiming it was facing its "next Napster" from internet sites that allowed consumers to download novelty ring tones and that "illegal downloads of mobile phone ringtones were costing the music industry around £750,000 a day".

That very same year, on behalf of copyright owners who claimed they didn't want their music turned into jingles, EMI was the first record company and music publisher to order ringtone providers to stop converting the songs of it's artists.

SMS and ringtones lead mobile data services

Young users will account for more than 40 percent of the market for mobile phone handsets and will spend over 13 percent of their disposable incomes on mobile products in the next few years, according to a comprehensive study of the behavior, attitudes and perceptions of mobile consumers, conducted by Telephia and Harris Interactive,

The report, written up in Business Standard, predicts that text messaging will account for 85 percent of all youth spending on value added services in 2006, followed by ringtones.

Youth spending on ringtones will amount to Euro 2.3 billion by 2006, with Japan, Korea, USA, Germany and UK as the largest markets.

AOL opens ringtone store

America Online is offering mobile users the ability to personalize their cell phones with hundreds of ring tones, logos, and screen savers being offered through the company's new Mobile Download Store.

For the launch, AOL features the ringtones of "Best of the Year: GRAMMY-nominated tracks from Nelly, Pink, Nickelback and more" and announces as a "coming soon" attraction: exclusive ringtones, icons, and graphics from cult film, "The Matrix: Reloaded."

The store, launched yesterday, offers the ringtones and graphics for $1.99 each and is available to subscribers of Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless Services, and T-Mobile USA.

The store is aimed at teens and young adults, who are increasingly interested in personalizing their mobile phones, according to AOL.
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Record your own ringtone

Instead of listening to the usual ringtone on your wireless phone, imagine being able to hear your significant other's voice say "I love you" every time he or she calls; recognize your best friend's phone call by the sound of your favorite song; or have incoming calls identified by your child's laugh, your cat's meow or the tinkle of wind chimes.

dotPhoto, a global leader in online voice-annotated digital imaging, is making this all possible through its new BlabTones' website. Available to users with a Motorola T720 phone. For more info see press release issued on Yahoo News

Original Tones

The work of artists, Thomson & Craighead's dot-store company has a very original set of items for sale (such as "Other People's e-cards", "Under Construction" tatoos and my personal favorite, a "Google Tea Towel" sporting a series of authentic search engine results returned to a user when the criteria, 'Please Help Me' were entered into the search field) and, some very unusual ringtones.

-- A set of three "harmonically related tones" designed for parents with one child and made with complementary simultaneous playback in mind. Inspired from Prokoviev's «Peter and the Wolf».

-- Two different Morse code tones as well as a silent ringtone (!).

-- And one may also purchase a CD to teach birds to sing mobile phone ringtones. This must come from one of the most off-the-wall ringtone stories that circulated in May 2001, about a Danish man who claimed the sparrows in his garden were chirping the Nokia classic tone. Which of course led Finish Mobile Avenue to offer a variety of bird ringtones. You can listen to some samples here.

Ringtones from their alma maters

Ringtones for downloading on your cell phone run the gamut of music genres, from classic and opera to jazz, hip hop, latino music, reggae, rock to religious psalms, national anthems to tv series and movie soundtracks, folk and country, even video game themes, jingles from commercials, and now college theme songs.

For a thrill every time their phone rings, NCAA basketball fans can download the "fight song" ringtone from their alma maters, the «NCAA on CBS» theme song, and what has become the unofficial championship theme song, «One Shining Moment», on Cingular.com.

College fight songs are also available from ringtone provider Zingy.com

On Cingular, fans can also download college logos, sign up for score alerts to be sent to their phones, vote on the best player in college basketball, or participate in a sweepstake, «TXT UR WAY 2 the NCAA Final 4» and win a trip to New Orleans.

Stimulating Mobile Experiences

The following description comes from a Motorola press release, issued at CeBIT, on a new cell phone model, the Motorola E390, which apparently, will enable the youthful market it is targeted to, to "rock their senses".

Thanks to new technology advances in sound, lighting, vibration and photo technologies this is to be a mobile experience like no other. Dual speaker technology will create live surround-sound with the phone's 3D polyphonic speaker system.

An embedded MotoMixer ring tone composer will enable users to create one-of- a-kind ringtones by adding or removing instruments and creating their own rhythm.

And this model has an innovative use of fun lights bringing content, games and ringtones to the next level, with multiple lights on the front and sides that light up to the disco beat or a car crash when playing MotoGP. Users will actually feel the car crash -- at least their hands will -- with the new vibration capabilities of the model.

MTV on Motorola cell phones

MTV and Motorola have signed a deal that will provide MTV programming on Motorola's mobile phones and allow for the promotion of events and retail sales between the two companies. Content will include music, games, images and ringtones which will be pre-loaded onto the handsets.

Revolution Magazine reports that in Europe, as a tie-in to 'MTV Mash', a programme inspired by the European bootlegging (or mashing) scene -- the mixing of old and new tunes to create cutting-edge new music, Motorola will feature what it calls a MotoMixer on its website, providing mixing capabilities for users to create unique ringtones.

Sony Music Mobile launches on AT&T Wireless

The Sony Music Mobile Products Group has announced the launch of Sony Music Mobile on the AT&T Wireless mMode service. Music fans can now access ring tones, graphics and breaking news about their favorite (Sony) artists from their cell phones. cf TheFeature.com, "Sony Music Mobile Debuts On AT&T Wireless MMode Service".

Beyond ringtones, downloading music from your cell phone

British mobile operator O2 will be testing what they claim is the world's first "music over mobile" service", using GPRS networks. The O2 music service will enable customers to select, retrieve and store the latest chart hits via their GPRS-enabled mobile handset onto a specially designed 'digital music player' - and start listening in around 12 seconds. The trials will start in May in the UK and Germany and should lead to a commercial roll out later this year. cf Cellular News

And News.com reports on a new Nokia music phone, the Nokia 3300, which contains an MP3 player, FM stereo and a digital recorder. Enabling users to transfer music files from a PC to the phone.

Downloading ringtones, more popular than songs

Soundbuzz, a digital music service provider with a focus on the Asia-Pacific markets. involved in the promotion and distribution of International and local digital music products (downloads, ringtones, images, lyrics) has built it's revenue streams on licensing technology platforms, integrating services with partners, and the sale of music through its retail and wholesale partners like MSN Asia-Pacific, Lycos Asia, Yahoo! and TM Net's bluehyppo.com.

According to an interview in TechCentral Malaysia, chief executive officer Sudhanshu Sarronwala said that ringtones represented 50% of Soundbuzz's business in 2002. "We're actually streaming music to sell ringtones. People will pay a couple of bucks for a ringtone, but they won't spend a third of that on actual songs," he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Ave Maria ringtone

To inspire users into contemplation, the Roman Catholic church in Holland offers religious ringtones. Users can select from 15 different ringtone-hymns, including Ave Maria and Salve Regina.

Sing-your-own-ringtone

Personalising your cell phone takes on new meaning when it can play your song, litterally. Cellphone entertainment website Zingy, allows users to sing their favorite tune. The «SingRing Machine» will convert it to a ringtone and send it directly to your mobile phone via SMS. Works with AT&T, Cingular, VoiceStream (T-Mobile) and with Nokia phones only.

T-Mobile ties in with Universal Music and MTV

According to an article in europemedia, Universal Music and MTV have agreed to provide German mobile operator T-Mobile, with multimedia content for mobiles from the two established brands.

T-Mobile subscribers will be able to download ringtones, send songs and ultimately to send short video clips from Universal, and 15 to 30 second cartoons and videos from MTV.

Here Comes the Bride ringtone

This story spread around the world last october.

A bride walked down the aisle to the tinny strains of «Here Comes the Bride» played on a guest's mobile phone, after the organ player failed to make it to the church on time. cf Ananova

Rescue Rings

Giving whole new meaning to "saved by the bell", Virgin Mobile USA offers it's subscribers the option to set up a "Rescue Ring to" escape any situation. They only need to schedule a time when they want to receive a call. "Save yourself from bad dates, boring meetings, or any other situation that needs interrupting".

Real music as a ringtone

Reuters reports on a small California company called Xingtone.com which has developed software which converts MP3 files to ringtones and enables users to make thier cell phone ring with any piece of real music or any voice or recorded sound. A favorite tune can play as a ringtone or someone's voice message can play for instance, "answer the phone!". For now, the technology works with the following phone models: Samsung A500, Samsung N400, Sanyo 4900 and Sanyo 5300, but more should be compatible soon.

What's left to be seen is how the music industry will react to this technology which goes way beyond polyphonic ringtones, already a great improvement over the existing metallic tunes we are used to, sounding more like a small orchestra with several different instruments and sound effects. Click here to listen to a polyphonic ringtone.

Nylon Beat, releases first ringtone teaser

Nylon Beat, a top Finnish girl band, was the first group in May of 2000 to release their new title, “Not Guilty”, as a ringtone before the CD was available on the market. The teaser played over the radio proved so effective that it became No. 1 the first day it hit the stores. And now, whenever the group performs the song in concert, fans hold up their phones and ring along with them.

EMI, first to ban artists ringtones

In December 2001, as reported in Ananova, on behalf of copyright owners who claimed they didn't want their music turned into jingles, EMI was the first record company and music publisher to order ringtone providers to stop converting the songs of it's artists.

Boy George, first ringtone composer

Boy George, pop icon of the 80s, singer, composer, producer and disk jokey all- in-one, was the first ringtone composer for cell phones. His first title was called "Sonic Trigger Ringtone" and was available exclusively to UK Vodafone subscribers.

NY bans cell phones in "places of public performance"

New York has been the first State to ban cell phone use while driving. The law went into affect November 1, 2001, as reported in CNN. And last December, New York City has come up with another first, with The City Council approving a billl that bans the use of mobile phones in "places of public performance", such as movie theaters, dance performances, lectures, museums, art galleries and libraries.

Violation of the law entails a $50 fine, such as talking on a cell phone, listening on one or even having one ring during a performance, but emergency phone calls are permitted, according to an article in Wired

Free ringtones in magazine promotion

Emap, publisher of British weekly celebrity gossip magazine «Sneak», is offering it's teenage readers free ringtones of their favorite pop stars. Members of Sneak's growing SMS Club will receive an SMS alert right before the magazine hits the stands, so as to be the first to respond to an ad, and text in "tune" followed by the name of their favorite popstar, according to an article in Revolution Magazine.

Emap partnered with wireless marketing agency Flytxt for this campaign as well as for the launch of the magazine last April, where they built a buzz around the launch and gave potential Sneak readers the chance to experience the magazine before they bought it.

The launch campaign involved ads, which invited readers to text in questions about their favourite celebrities to receive up-to-the-minute gossip.

Flytxt's database held the latest news on over 100 of the most popular celebrities and based on an intelligent response technology, was be able to reply to the readers' questions with the most relevant gossip.

Ringtones, a $ 700 million market

According to a study released mid-january British by research company Informa Media Group, and reported by MSNBC, authors' collection societies collected $71 million in royalties from ring-tone sales in 2002, up 58 percent from the previous year.

The royalties figure — typically 10-15 percent of the total sales from ringtones — would suggest that the overall market is over $700 million annually, and quite possibly as high as $1 billion.  The proceeds are divided between operators, labels and the artists.