The Ringtone Society
November 7, 2007 – 4:23 pmMELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL
Sick and tired of your ring tone? Looking for that extra special individuality to make others jealous when your phone goes off?
The Ringtone Society has the solution for you. None of your everyday downloads here; no familiar commercial samples or bastardised Mozart symphonies. Every phone tone is an original contemporary composition, created exclusively to be played on a mobile phone.
Started in 2003 by a group of Dutch composers and musicians, the Ringtone Society aims to enrich the sonic landscape of public life by encouraging every mobile phone user to get a ring tone tailored to their own identity.
Sponsored by the Dutch government, the Society is in residence at ACMI, where new tones are being recorded in front of a live audience at daily sessions.
Fancy a ditty by Ethel or Rebecca Barnard? Maybe Dead Lee Serious floats your boat? Perhaps you need Kev Carmody calling from your handset, telling you to “Pig up the phone!”
Sounds fun, but one drawback is that it only works with the latest MP3 phones, and while the idea will probably appeal more to Gen-Xers, you need Gen-Y techno skills.
So press-gang a 16-year-old into service, and download your new identity - at $3 a tone, it’s a cheaper way of buying style than an Armani suit.
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