How Ring Tones Work – A Musical Awakening

Have you ever been in a public place and heard a cellphone ring? Isn’t it funny to see everyone reach for their phones, not knowing if it’s theirs or not? That situation is becoming a thing of the past. And the reason for that is downloadable ring tones. People are adopting their own unique ring tones, so that they’ll recognize the ring as being exclusively theirs. They can do that? Oh yes, and we’d like to show you how. We’re going to give you a simple explanation here of how ring tones work.

Monophonic tones vs. polyphonic tones

Let’s look at a couple of the major manufacturers of cell phones, Nokia and Samsung. They both carry a variety of monophonic and polyphonic phones. We’ll explain the difference using these phones as an example.

Nokia developed SMS (Short Messaging Service) technology so they could send short text messages between cellphones. The system went on to be the carrier for non-text information like ring tones and logos.

Nokia and Samsung monophonic ring tones are short tunes played with simple tones – the tones we’ve been used to hearing when a cellphone rings. These tones are made up of single notes.

Nokia polyphonic ring tones are the same as regular, or monophonic tones, but they can play several notes and sounds together, sounding like harmonized tunes, or normal music. Polyphonic tones differ in levels of quality, and the better ones can sound like a small orchestra.

Samsung polyphonic ring tones use MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) technology. This format creates polyphonic musical compositions with different sounds, which come out sounding more like music. Polyphonic means that multiple tones can be played at the same time, using actual instrument sounds like guitars, drums and electronic pianos. The result is much more harmonized tunes.

Samsung also has what they call a Poly 16 that can play 16 notes at once – definitely a superior sound. And if you think that’s good, check out their V200 model, a Poly 40. This phone can play the most natural sounds – human voices, jazz rhythms, and classical music – perfectly, because it actually reproduces the instrumental sounds.

Some Samsung phones have a built-in composer, so you can “write your own music”, directly from the keyboard, and create your own unique ring tones.

Polyphonic tones have other uses, too. Besides being used for ring tones, they’re also used in message alert tones and as sound effects in cellphone games.

You can personalize your cellphone with unique ring tones

With all these options available to you, there’s no doubt you can make your cellphone exclusively different, especially if you make up your own ring tones. There’ll be no more wondering when you hear a cellphone ring – you’ll know for sure if it’s yours or not.

You can make your ring play Beethoven, or you can make it play 50 Cent. You can program your phone to play classical, rap, jazz or pop. You can give your phone a personality of its own – which of course, reflects your personality. “It becomes a fashion accessory at that point,” says James Ryan, vice-president of data product management at Cingular Wireless.

For the younger set, hip-hop music is the popular choice. Seven out of ten ring tones downloaded in 2003 on the Cingular Wireless network were hip-hop songs. The most popular ring tone downloaded in 2003 was taken from the song “In Da Club,” by 50 Cent. This year’s rapper of choice is OutKast. One reason why this type of music is so popular, besides the music itself, is the strong beat, which translates well to the high-pitched tones of cellphones. Michael Gallelli, director of content acquisition at T-Mobile, puts it like this: “Because of the very rhythmic nature of the music, it just serves itself very well in the form of ring tones.”

And personalizing your ring tones doesn’t stop there. You can identify your caller by setting a certain song to play when they call. For example, if your loved one calls you, you’ll hear their favorite song when your phone rings. And if it’s your boss calling, you can program your phone to play the theme from “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”…or maybe not. And if it’s your teenager calling, you can identify them by rap music. The possibilities are endless.

Ring tones boost the recording industry

The latest innovation in downloadable ring tones is available in a variety of brands – super tones, TruTones, Real Tones, and many others. These advanced tones are actually MP-3 files that can only be played on newer-model phones. By the end of the year, probably all the major cellphone providers will carry these advanced models. Right now, about 40 million phones in the U.S. are capable of accepting ring tones.

Of course, when you’re dealing with artists, royalties come into play. Legal permission is required to sell these new tones. Therefore, the music industry has a new, much needed source of income. The major carriers have agreements with vendors that license, format and support ring tones to sell to their wireless customers. Moviso, a division of InfoSpace, sells downloading services to AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, Cingular Wireless and Virgin Mobile, as well as handset makers Nokia, Motorola and Samsung.

Once the rights to a song are secured from the music publisher (and the artist, if it has any vocals), Moviso’s developers format the song into 24 digital formats, allowing the ring tone to be played on one of 300 handsets that accept ring tone downloads. The price of the ring tone is split between the carrier, the ring tone vendor and the owner of the music copyright, with the carrier getting half.

So ring tones are a bright spot for the music industry, especially with declining CD sales, and the ongoing mountain of lawsuits over file-sharing. According to the Arc Group, a London-based telecommunications consulting firm, ring-tone sales accounted for more than 10% of the $32.2 billion in music sales around the world last year. And that’s the most refreshing news they’ve had for a long time!

Ring tones are available in many places

There are a variety of sources for downloadable ring tones. Cellphone users can buy them from their provider’s website, or go to various other websites that offer a variety of downloads, including ring tones, games, screen savers and wallpaper.

If you have Internet access on your cell phone, you can download free cell phone ring tones directly and put them to use in about a minute. If you have an older phone, without Internet access, you can still use ring tones – they’re sent to you as a text message.

Ring tones haven’t finished yet

So you thought cellular phones were advanced? Well, there’s much more to come. Cellular long distance has been available for quite some time. And phone cards have been around for a while, too. And now we have ring tones. And just when you thought they’d reached their peak, more advances are in store. Somewhere on the horizon, you’ll see “ringbacks” – bits of melody you can program your phone to play, instead of the ordinary ringing signal, when you call family members, friends or business contacts. The engineers of cellphone technology are sitting back, thinking, “The world is our oyster!”

And you’ll probably feel the same way when you program your cellphone with your exclusive ring tone. And then you’ll know, when everyone’s phone is ringing at the same time, which one is yours. And perhaps, soon, you’ll be using your cellphone as an alarm clock. Then you’ll indeed have “a musical awakening”!

About The Author

Gareth Marples is a freelance business writer providing valuable tips and advice for consumers about free cell phone tone, Nokia composer ringtones and unlimited long distance phone plans. His numerous articles offer moneysaving tips and valuable insight on typically confusing topics.

This article on "How Ring Tones Work" reprinted with permission.