Archive
Everything here, in one list
All 25 pieces, grouped by section.
Gran Vals
- Four Bars Tárrega Never Meant to Go AnywhereThe precise passage in Francisco Tárrega's 1902 guitar piece Gran Vals that became the Nokia tune, establishing what the piece is and why those four bars were chosen.
- Nokia 2110: The Phone That Shipped the TuneThe Nokia 2110's 1994 release as the first handset to carry the Nokia tune as a default ring, with the technical fact of how a monophonic tone was stored and played.
- When Nokia Asked the World to Rewrite ItNokia's 2011 open competition to remake the Nokia tune, documenting who entered, what the brief was and what the company chose.
- Marimba: The Tune That Inherited the ThroneHow the iPhone's default tone Marimba — composed by Apple, shipped in 2007 — filled the cultural space the Nokia tune had occupied, and why no single default has held that position since.
- Hello Moto and the Voice That Sold a Brand'Hello Moto' as a spoken-word ringtone and brand device — when Motorola introduced it, which handsets carried it, and what it represented in the competition between default tones as brand identity.
Handsets
- Nokia 3310: The Phone You Wrote Music OnThe Nokia 3310's Composer feature (2000) and the RTTTL text format that let people key in melodies and share them as SMS strings, establishing how the phone became the first mass instrument for amateur ringtone authorship.
- Razr V3: When the Phone Became the ObjectThe Motorola Razr V3's 2004 release — its design specification, its cultural moment as a fashion object, and how its speaker and audio chipset sat in the shift from polyphonic to truetone.
- W800: Sony Ericsson Puts a Walkman in the Ringtone EraThe Sony Ericsson W800's launch as a music-first handset — its orange earbuds, its AAC support and how it positioned audio quality as a handset selling point in 2005.
- BlackBerry 7290 and the Ringtone Nobody NoticedHow BlackBerry's default tones were designed for corporate contexts — quiet, professional, discreet — and what that tells us about ringtone as social signal rather than entertainment.
- The Sidekick and the Market That Bought the Most TonesThe T-Mobile Sidekick as the handset most associated with the teenage ringtone-buying demographic in the mid-2000s, and how that demographic was also the primary target of subscription-trap marketing.
- iPhone, 2007: A Ringtone Maker Arrives, and a Market EndsThe first iPhone's launch ringtone set — Marimba, Xylophone, Opening — and the iTunes ringtone-maker feature at its launch price, as the documented turning point after which the paid-ringtone market began its measured decline.
Formats
- The Chip That Made a Phone Sound Like a BandThe technical step from monophonic tones to polyphonic — how Yamaha's MA-2 and MA-3 chips enabled multiple simultaneous voices on a handset speaker, and which phones first carried them.
- RTTTL: A Text String Someone Could SMS YouThe Ring Tone Transfer Language format — its syntax, its Nokia origin and the fact that an entire tune could be transmitted as a plain-text SMS — and traces how RTTTL strings circulated on early web forums before WAP existed.
- SMAF and the Format Japan Ran OnThe Synthetic Music Mobile Application Format developed by Yamaha for the i-mode and chaku-melo markets, how it related to the MA-series chips, and why it did not become the global standard despite Japan's early lead.
- Truetone: When the Ringtone Was the RecordThe arrival of the truetone — a segment of the actual master recording sold as a ringtone — explaining the AMR and MP3 formats it used, the licensing model that made it possible, and why Billboard created a separate chart for it in 2004.
- M4R: Apple's Container and What It Locked InThe M4R file format — a renamed AAC container restricted to 40 seconds — that Apple used for iTunes ringtones, what it required of a purchaser and how it compared to the open truetone formats it displaced.
The Charts
- Hot Ringtones: Billboard Gave the Tone Its Own ChartThe launch of Billboard's Hot Ringtones chart in 2004 and the companion Hot RingMasters listing, documenting which tracks led it in its first years and what the chart's existence said about the industry's scale at its peak.
- Crazy Frog Goes to Number One and Nobody Is Happy About ItCrazy Frog's Axel F reaching number one in the UK charts in 2005 — Jamster's marketing campaign, Daniel Malmedahl's original 1997 'Insanity Test' recording, the ICSTIS complaints and the cultural reaction to a ringtone outperforming conventional releases.
- Gold for a Ringtone: What the RIAA Certified in 2006The RIAA's 2006 introduction of master-tone certification thresholds, which titles earned gold or platinum status, and what the figures said about the volume of the paid-download market at its peak.
- Chaku-Uta: Japan Invented the Paid Download in 1999How NTT DoCoMo's i-mode platform and the chaku-melo and chaku-uta formats created the world's first mass market for paid ringtone downloads between 1999 and 2002, establishing the commercial model every Western operator copied.
- Jamster, Jamba and the Subscription Nobody Meant to StartJamba's rebranding as Jamster, its premium SMS subscription model, VeriSign's 2004 purchase, and the consumer complaints that followed — documenting the UK's ICSTIS rulings and the American FTC actions as the industry's worst-practices moment.
The Decline
- After 2007: The Ringtone Market's Measured FallUsing Nielsen and Gartner figures dated to the years they were issued — that the iPhone's arrival was the inflection point after which paid-ringtone revenue fell every year, tracing the mechanism: app stores, music libraries and the flat-rate data plan.
- The Numbers That Recorded the QuietThe Nielsen and Gartner market figures for 2008–2012, presenting the decline of paid ringtone revenue year by year with each figure attributed and dated, and noting which segments (truetone, polyphonic, ringback) fell fastest.
- PhonepayPlus and the Regulator That Curbed the Short CodeThe UK regulator ICSTIS — renamed PhonepayPlus — and its 2005–2007 rulings against premium SMS ringtone subscriptions, documenting the fines issued, the companies named and the rule changes that followed.
- Ringback: The Ringtone Only the Caller HeardThe ringback tone — a replacement for the standard ringing sound heard by the person making the call — covering Verizon's 2004 US launch, how the product was priced and sold, and why it remained a niche format that declined before the main market did.