Timo Anttila, one of Nokia’s early in-house composers, bought his first phone, a Nokia 2110, in 1996. Wherever you went back then, it was impossible to escape the sound of Tárrega’s greatest legacy. Ringtone culture arguably began in the mid-’90s with the Nokia Tune, which borrowed from the song “Gran Vals” by classical guitarist Francisco Tárrega.
#Bleep ringtone archive
“A lot of the time these packs are handled by more experienced people.” His love for the cultural aspects of the medium has made into more than just a casual archive thanks to his ongoing efforts to ask composers for files and interviews some of his famous followers include music critic Anthony Fantano and Rebecca Black, whose new music proves that ringtones still have a palpable echo in pop production, decades after their peak. “Sometimes the firmware is encrypted so it’s near impossible to get the files,” Fusoxide explains. The groundbreaking ringtone work at Nokia is largely kept alive by hobbyists who extract ringtones from old firmware. With younger people interested in ringtones, how have perceptions changed about their origins, and how have ringtones lived on in modern soundscapes?
As he howls in confusion at the shrill bleeps, I realize that if you yanked me back to 2002 after years of quiet, discreet phone etiquette, I would probably feel the same. It sends me down a YouTube rabbit hole of old Nokia ringtones until I realize that my cat hates them and isn’t afraid to tell me. Reaching out to Fusoxide about a defining part of my lived childhood - the ’90s were a very special but awkward teething period for mobile phones - feels like a weird dream where time makes no sense. With others, like he helps to maintain Andre Louis’ phonetones directory - a repository of phone software, sound banks, ringtones, and audio ephemera from a bygone era. Today, Fusoxide is behind the popular Twitter account. “I love the sound of old ringtones, partly due to nostalgia and partly because I think there’s genuine underlooked gems,” he says.
The 20-year-old Scottish musician, who prefers to be known by his online handle Fusoxide, got hooked through an Alcatel flip phone he had as a kid. It’s not surprising that sales have dropped, whilst ringtones have sold better.One of the internet’s better-known ringtone archivists was barely alive to witness the golden age of his biggest hobby. Now you get two or three tracks – all of which usually mixes, for 3.99 or 4.99 – sometimes 5.99.
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A few years ago you could pick up a CD single with the original tune, 4 mixes plus one or two other tracks for around 2.99. The drop in sales of CD singles doesn’t surprise me either, as record companies have increased the price of these and reduced the number of tracks. I hate the fact that kids – especially teens, have to fork out almost 4 quid for a crappy “bleep bleep” ringtone for their mobile phones. My personal view on this is probably already known. This is set to rise even further with the advent of polyphonic midi tunes which offer a more “realistic” version of popular songs.
#Bleep ringtone download
Companies make huge profits from these sales, and on-line downloads – plus machines in pubs which allow “over the air” download after payment are more popular than ever. Ringtones already fleece mobile-phone users to the tune (tune… geddit? Eh? Eh?) of between £1.50 and £3.50 for the latest pop hits.
Ringtones are now more profitable to record companies than singles! Crappy, expensive, annoying “bleep bleep bleepy bleep” ringtones are set to beat the sales of CD singles, it was reported today.
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