A Telling Cell
Ringtones Serve As Personal Anthems
Last updated Saturday, May 3, 2008 5:25 PM CDT in Living
By Sara Sullivan
The Morning News
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The ID bracelet. The vanity plate. The neck tattoo.
None of these methods of self-expression can hold a candle to the most ubiquitous and active personal advertisement: the cell phone ringtone.
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Nineteen-year-old Joahna Murillo was sitting with her friend Wendy Cox at a table in the food court of the Northwest Arkansas Mall on a recent Saturday, her thumb working over the keypad on her cell phone.
The two college students have very differing opinions on the value of cell phone ringtones. "I think it's just really all about personality," said Murillo, who changes her ringtone frequently. Cox does not care much about ringtones, and simply uses whatever ringers come with her phone. "I don't want to waste my money on songs I can hear on the radio," she said.
However, Cox is in a minority among young people with cell phones.
Even though people can pay $1 for full-length songs on music providers like iTunes, most don't mind paying $3 for a portion of a song for their phone because "that ringtone is actually going to work for that person," said Ted Suh, chief marketing officer for the U.S. operations of Zed Worldwide, the leading mobile entertainment company.
"It's a pretty cheap way for someone to really show their peers - or anyone in the world - who they are," he said. "It can really be a social identifier."
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"There's more to do on your phone than just voice calls," and the younger market has traditionally been the first to tap into the ancillary features of the device, Suh said.
Which makes it no surprise that the demographic that downloads the most ringtones is aged 17 to 24.
And even though the ringtone industry is now experiencing a flattening in sales, Zed's U.S. operations can still boast a download every second. The company, which markets RingToneJukeBox.com and other related sites, accounts for 19 percent of the nation's ringtone market and made $120 million in 2007.
Hip-hop, rock and pop are the three top-selling ringtone genres, Suh said, but the industry is aggressively marketing to underserved consumers like country or Christian music lovers.
"It's kind of an interesting time right now." Only 18 percent of the cell phone base has downloaded music or some kind of mobile content, he said, and the industry is working to appeal to the rest.
Music analysis company Billboard started tracking and charting the commercial popularity of ringtones in November 2004. The number one ringtone of all time is the rap song "Candy Shop" by 50 Cent featuring Olivia, which made $2.4 million in total sales.
Interestingly, the third most popular ringtone of all time, the Super Mario Brothers Theme, is also ranked fifth in the Top 5 Most Annoying Ringtones according to billboard.com.
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"The mobile phone is very much a part of someone's day-to-day life," Suh said. Cell phones have become the sort of status symbol that cars were in previous generations, he explained.
And the coolness of the phone is in large part determined by the coolness of the ringtone.
"People want to have the best," said 12-year-old Marshall Washburn as he loitered around a kiosk full of brightly colored gumball machines at the Fayetteville mall. "Me and my friends are pretty competitive," he admitted.
Washburn and 12-year-olds Tara O'Brien and Melissa McNamara whipped out their phones - a metallic red flip phone, a black flip phone, and a gray candybar phone with a charm dangling from the top, respectively - and gushed about the importance of personalized ringtones.
"If you're with a bunch of people and your phone rings, you know it's yours," O'Brien said. "They're songs that I like, and some of them are, like, for my personality."
The energetic preteens said they usually change their ringtones three or four times a month. Or 10.
But why the need to download new songs? Is there a problem with the songs that are pre-programmed into the phone?
"There is a big problem," the dark-blonde McNamara said as the three held out their phones and started scrolling through the default ringers in a battle for the most obnoxious.
"It's just like a frog croaking."
"Yeah, well listen to this!"
"They don't even have any words."
They spoke over a cacophony of beeps, squeals and scales in what felt like an auditory seizure.
"They're really annoying," O'Brien stated, and the phones mercifully found their way back into pockets and purses.
Will fad ringtones ever go away?
"I hope not," O'Brien said. "I love ringtones."
Tones like the theme song to the movie "One Missed Call" or the cartoon "Phineas and Ferb" or the TV show "Hannah Montana."
"My brother put it on, and I can't get it off," Washburn said as he grinned from underneath his trendy reddish-brown bangs. "I'm gonna change it to 'Thriller.'"
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In addition to communicating personal identity, ringtones are used to express relationships in this technical age. A phone-holder will assign special songs to frequent or beloved callers.
"I like buying ringtones that kind of describe the way I feel about that person at a certain time," Murillo said.
"And if she gets angry at you, she'll change your ringtone," Cox said with a laugh and a nod of agreement from her friend.
And having specific ringtones for people brings a whole new ease to call screening. No more unnecessary digging cell phones out of cavernous purses and tight pockets on skinny jeans, because "you can tell who it is by the ringtone," Washburn pointed out.
"I love the audio caller ID concept," Suh said.
"Music really kind of identifies who people are," he said. "This is just another way to extend someone's personality."
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The ringtone has enabled people to make a lasting impression in a way like never before. A nickname written on a grain of rice in a little glass tube on a necklace may not have branded itself into anyone's memory, but the "Indiana Jones" theme song will run through people's heads all day.
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