April 20, 2003
James Winsoar, first ringtone provider
Does anyone know who's behind the ringtone craze of today? Well it was 23 year old British national James Winsoar, who first realised in July 1999, that a feature built by Nokia into their cell phones -- allowing mobile phone companies to add their logo and ringing sounds -- could be exploited by others, allowing anyone the freedom to customise their mobile phone with graphics and music.
He set up My Nokia service in July 1999, the world's first commercial ringtone service (ultimately changing it's name to Phat Tonez), a company estimated at £ 2 million in May 2000.
The concept of downloading ringtones spread like wildfire online with many copycat-sites setting up shop all over the Web, sparking off a controversy with the music industry and record companies who complained they were losing out on millions of dollars of royalties for their music.
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