Author Sumanth Gopinath a Professor of Music Theory in the University of Minnesota, talks about the development and possible future of the mobile ringtone. What started out almost as a "novelty" has developed into a cultural phenomenon with simple tunes advancing to polyphonic and full mp3 stereo playback. In some ways the modern ringtone can also be used to chart the development on the mobile industry itself. His paper "Ringtones or the Auditory Logic of Globalization" appeared in First Monday late last year.

A few section highlights:

• In many cases ringtone sales are outpacing recording single sales of the same song...
• The technology was essentially conceived as a novelty...
• An estimated 90 percent of ringtones in Malaysia are pirated...
• Cultural memory in the world of mobile entertainment seems startlingly short...
• The work of composing ringtones is not particularly glamorous...
• The fact that every person’s phone is pre–registered in a database, with many but not all phones being reprogrammed with new ringtones, paints an image of a society constantly under surveillance, with each individual citizen’s strings being pulled at will by a hegemonic force.

Average user rating

   (0 vote)