Does anybody here, or anyone you know, actually download Ringtones?

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My phone has the facility, but I have chosen the good old fashioned "ring ring" option.

Why would anyone do this, weekly/monthly/whatever?

I admit to being tempted to get "HOJL" as a download once, but did not. Also, once tried to program "Say your prayers" DOT in, but....

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i NEARLY bought 'Roobarb & Custard' once, back in my Nathan daze

but no

the sheer volume of advertising for ringtones, logos etc. on digital youth-orientated channels is disturbing in it's monotony, banality etc.

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, and I've not found one person who does!

(Alice would like to get "Sweetie the Chick", but she doesn't know what its for anyway)

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:29 (twenty-one years ago)

mrs fiendish bought a phone - a samsung, i think - that didn't actually have a ring-ring sound, just a lot of stupid fucking tunes. so she had to download one. it was at that point, i think, that i realised the whole world had gone mad.

and that i was getting old.

i once spent half a day programming an old nokia to play the imperial death march from star wars. it sounded shit.

and i once managed to persuade my phone to play a .WAV of the loading-screen music ocean software used on their commodore 64 games circa 1985. it wasn't really worth the herculean effort it took: after two days i got bored and went back to ring-ring.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I recently "tested" this facility by getting the 24 CTU ringtone. I won't do it again, I promise...

― Baaderonixxx le Jeune (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:34 (twenty-one years ago)

That's all fine!

Its more the idea that anyone would do this often enough to make it such that a chart could be produced that'd show the similarities between the 'ringtone' chart anf the actual singles sale chart.

If you get me.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't get you, no.

(not everyone has to be dling a new one each week for such a chart to work, if that's what you mean)

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Afraid so, I braved those dodgy looking websites and downloaded Blackstrobe's Chemical Sweet Girl last week. The new phone was packed full of crappy sounding high pitched squeals, so it was sort of essential. Cost £1.50 though, which I wasn't chuffed about, and certainly wouldn't ever do it again.

― MattR (MattR), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Alba, you do sort of get me.

Just that the ringtone chart is much like the actual chart. The NME ringtone one is much like the 'alt' chart, such as it is.

So, who'd download "what became of the likely lads" and replace "Can't stand me now" for example?

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

The only people who download ringtones on a regular basis are teenagers whos parents buy them endless credit, and they waste it on the fuckin frog thing or the new Eminem "realtone"

I hate ringtones so much that my phone has been on silent for years, much to the dismay of those who call me.

I've always thought of singles as overpriced at £3 or £4 a throw, but a £3 ringtone is taking the piss. Someone, somewhere is getting very rich off of these monkeys.

― dmun, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

if they're dumb enough to fritter their pocket money on this nonsense instead of good wholesome pursuits like explicit comic books, gangsta rap, amusement arcades and butterscotch...

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 12:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I have read many a feature on these ringionaires. They are indeed, laughing. Meanwhile, the original fucking frog man lives in relative penury in Sweden. It's a sick world.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 12:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i downloaded 'eye of the tiger' last year. with my crappy monophonic nokia, it sounded like a life-support machine flat-lining.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 12:50 (twenty-one years ago)

(.. someone went through all that, to put their life and/or troubles into song, and it then gets used to tell someone else that someone else wants to talk to them...)...

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Try this:
http://ringtonesociety.com/

― Why Shoot Eye, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 13:15 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.littlecaesarspizza.com/Cellphon.gif

― latebloomer: damn cheapskate satanists (latebloomer), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

actually, i've just remembered that a pal and i once sat in his living room at 5am listening to his "heroes" ringtone. it was astonishingly moving. almost as good as the original.

we were, i should add, on E at the time.

what i want to know is: why did someone program a six-minute ringtone when, y'know, phones ring for 15 seconds then go to voicemail?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 13:22 (twenty-one years ago)

My phone came with a ringtone of Erik Satie's first gymnopodie. I don't need anything else.

― wordyrappington (wordyrappington), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a couple friends in the 'ringtone' and related biz and it's a cashcow apparently. I don't understand the appeal and can't imagine it will be that big of a thing, but maybe the kids love it?

― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

i have the dukes of hazzard ringtone.

― Chris 'The Nuts' V (Chris V), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I tried to once but my phone was avin' none of it. I did figure out how to write in the old tones, now everything is polyphonic and ting. Really i recon it is all about short mp3 clips.

― lukey (Lukey G), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Sasha Frere-Jones on ringtones

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I would download ringtones if I ever set my phone to ring. Mostly it's on vibrate because I get embarrassed about people hearing it. (Plus, that way, I don't forget to turn the ring off at work, in movie theaters, etc.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i've got nice ones of jay-z's "lucifer", daft punk's "aerodynamic", aaliyah's "try again", nas's "ain't hard to tell" and bjaxx's "lucky star". i dl/ed em all in one day when my friend told me (incorrectly) that my phone service was offering free d/l's for a week.

― jermaine (jnoble), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I have Trans-Europe Express!

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i've got herbie hancock - "rockit" in polyphonic or whatever it is when it's a snatch of the actual song, i had kiss - "detroit rock city" and salt n pepa - "push it" before in whatever the old really beepy kind is called - monophonic? i kinda miss my "push it" ringtone. my sisters have tons of these things, update them all the time.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know if my phone can do ringtones, but if it can, I want "Who Are Parents"

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I've got "Chewing Gum". It came with some snazzy Annie wallpaper.

― Richard C (avoid80), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

four billion dollars!!!!

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

My phone lets me put on MIDI files, and use them as ringtones, so I downloaded the Tetris tune. I find it most amusing to imsert such a brain-occupying tune in people's heads in public spaces. This doesn't happen often because nobody rings me :(

(maybe nobody rings me because I'm the sort of person who has Tetris as their ringtone? What came first, the annoying ringtone or the unpopular twat?)

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't understand the appeal of ringtones. I mean, a little shitty bleeping noise that sounds a bit like a song you like - hurrah. I can imagine Aerodynamic actually sounds quite good though.

My friend once paid for a monophonic ringtone of some Rapture song, and it was hilariously feeble, unrecognisable blipping.

― Michael Philip Philip Philip Philip Annoyman v1.0 (Ferg), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah them type ringtones are a thing of the past sadly

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Ringtones rule. I don't have a cell phone currently but I would totally get a "Wanksta" ring tone. Maybe "How We Do" or "Got Your Money".

― deej., Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

My mother-in-law got a phone from her son and when it rings, "Big Pimpin" plays. I laugh every time. She has no idea.

― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I once programmed 'Just Like Heaven' into a Seimens phone but got the timings wrong and it played at double speed. It was a good "name that tune" conversation piece, for about 3 seconds.

I have never downloaded a ringtone, though someone once sent me the theme from The Magnificent Seven as a 'gift'.

Apparently that frog thing has raked in more than £12M.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

four billion dollars!!!!
Is that a song, or are you talking about the industry? I saw a Garner Group report last year saying that ringtones in 2003 were a 1 billion dollar industry, and that "ringtone" was the number one tech-related search on the internet in 2003.

I wish I could invent some bullshit idea like ringtones and become wealthy beyond all decency.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

oh shit I used to have the tetris tone on my old phone! Nowadays I just use the mexican hat dance that came with the phone.. its pretty much superior in every way.

― Dude, are you a 15 year old asian chick? (jingleberries), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

(That's Gartner Group, not the Jennifer Garner fanclub.)

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I program my own, they sound like pixelated diarrhea.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't download Ringtones on mine. Too expensive and too limited. I do know plenty of people who download them, though.

― Quit glaring at Ian Riese-Moraine! He's mentally fraught! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I want this to be my ringtone:

http://heat.iwarp.com/Sounds/greatass.wav

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Best I've heard was the Indiana Jones theme -- I heard it in the supermarket on some dude's phone. Now THAT would make me want to answer my phone.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 17 March 2005 05:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I've found two that actually sound acceptable enough to use. Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" has that perfect ring of urban paranoid to it. And now that it's spring I've switched over to "Frontin'" by the Neptunes, which somehow renders the falsetto of the bridge really well in cutesy midi.

― Dare, Thursday, 17 March 2005 05:18 (twenty-one years ago)

a friend of mine had the "airwolf" theme a few years ago. it sounded much better as a ringtone than it ever did on telly.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 17 March 2005 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Though I mostly have my phone on silent or meeting (beep), I spent a sleepless night digging up "Misread" by Kings of Convenience and "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

They are both good, but "Maps" is very faithful to 24 seconds of the original and therefore RIDICULOUSLY catchy.

― jenn K (satellitesynth), Thursday, 17 March 2005 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

i see henry mancini's "baby elephant walk" is available as a ringtone. that would be nice.

― john'n'chicago, Thursday, 17 March 2005 22:16 (twenty-one years ago)

seven years pass...

Are 'download ringtones' a thing of the past, as soon as people realised they could do them for themselves?

I'm still amazed it was ever a thing that'd earn.

― Mark G, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 11:27 (thirteen years ago)

I actually downloaded my first one ever the other month - Take Five by Dave Brubeck. Or do I mean Time Out? I always get confused as to which is the album title and which the track title. I could have edited it, obviously, but I was browsing what was available, out of curiosity, and it struck me that it'd be a great ringtone, so I downloaded it.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 19 June 2012 11:56 (thirteen years ago)

You know what, I actually 'made' one..

I got a new phone, and thought "you know, my ears always prick up at the sound of the intro to Marquee Moon", so I thought: Why not?

D/l from a friendly blog (I have many copies of the album, and bought the 12" single first week it was out so ner), in the process now...

― Mark G, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 11:58 (thirteen years ago)

I did try, a few weeks ago. I was listening to Messiaen and every time it went "whoop whoop" I thought it was my email going. So I thought actually, that would make an attention grabbing ringtone! (coz 3 other ppl in my office use the iPhone bell)

Astonishingly, Joi Du Sang Des Etoiles was not available as a ringtone!

'twas v easy to make but ridiculously difficult to find instructions *how* to make.

― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 12:38 (thirteen years ago)

my old Nokia used to have a composer option, hours of fun. You had to code for octaves, beat lengths, rests etc, but no 3/4 length notes or polyphonics. Sadly, new phone don't have it

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 22:43 (thirteen years ago)

I got my first moblie in 2008, promptly edited down the chorus of R. Kelly's "Ringtone" in soundforge, converted to m4r and have never considered another.

― the hat's filthy lesson (sic), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 00:47 (thirteen years ago)

thirteen years pass...

A deep dive

https://www.statsignificant.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-music-ringtones

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 28 August 2025 15:06 (nine months ago)

I haven’t used a ringtone since sometime in the second half of 2012.

― Nancy Makes Posts (sic), Friday, 29 August 2025 16:03 (nine months ago)

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