Ringtones, or the auditory logic of globalization

This incredibly thorough essay by Sumantha Gopinath - Assistant Professor of Music Theory in the University of Minnesota School of Music - published on First Monday "attempts to provide a description of the global ringtone industry, to determine and assess the numerous cultural consequences of the ringtone’s appearance and development, and to situate the ringtone within the context of contemporary capitalism." The essay also covers the history of the ringtone, how it's evolving, world sales, what it's like to be a ringtone composers and who's entitled to copyright revenue.

Some random highlights:

-- Ringtones are central to the contemporary sonic imaginary and are in several ways indicative of the transformations in capitalism taking place in the wake of the Third Industrial (or digital) Revolution.

-- The work of composing ringtones is not particularly glamorous: it is, in a sense, an updated form of writing jingles or advertising music whose product is mobile telephony itself.

-- In a survey of a hundred professionals with cell–phones by the British PR agency Burston–Marsteller, 18 percent of respondents found the worst cell phone etiquette offense to be playing through all of your cellphone ringtones while sitting on the train.

-- In many cases ringtone sales are outpacing recording single sales of the same song...

emily | 6:36 PM | Reports and Studies |
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