Mobile Phone Ringtones

A ringtone is a sound that a mobile phone playes back when a call or a text message arrives.

A few years ago it was only possible to use the default sounds. The idea to gain a call's attention by a sound or even music developed into an own market that expanded over the years more and more.

The main idea was to transfer popular songs to the mobile phone but this was initially only possible with polyphonic tones. These included the song's melody but no original music or even singing.

Meanwhile this is possible, too and the music industry earns a lot with it's transactions with so-called real tones. You can get popular tunes as well as funny sayings and sounds.

A newer option that includes the voice in a song is the MP3 format. Every phone that has MP3-support can also use these MP3s to work as a ringtone.

A normal ringtone costs about 1.99 euros. The payment is often done via the phone network provider with a so called premium SMS. Another option is to call 0900 numbers. Prices of 1.86 euros per minute are common.

You can save costs by looking for a cellphone without a contract. Thus an iPhone 4 without a contract costs a lot of money but without monthly contract fees this investment has paid off quickly and you can invest this money into other things.

With the use of massive advertising many young people are tempted to buy new tunes. This leads to expensive bills and inadvertently closed subscriptions as many offers are misleading and the terms a hard to read.

However there are already computer programs that are able to convert existing music files or tracks on music-CDs into ringtones without any additional costs.
In 2004 in Germany ringtones for more than 183 million euros where sold.

A lot of people feel disturbed by ringtones of othe people and therefore mobile phones are prohibited in some areas (in cinema for example).