The Ringtone Society
Circa 2006

 

In 2006 this was The Ringtone Society's website.
A little history might be in order:

 

The Ringtone Society

Thursday 26 October 2006 12:00AM
The Crazy Frog ringtone became the first mega hit on the ringtone chart a couple of years ago, with millions of people downloading it to their phones.
But it also drove millions of people nuts, including a group of young Dutch artists who decided to get even.
They formed The Ringtone Society, dedicated to creating quality original ringtones.
They invite musicians to submit original tunes or record them live, so they can be put on the Society's website and downloaded for a small fee.
They've been mining the talents of local musicians at this years Melbourne International Arts Festival.

 

Ringtones can no longer be downloaded from this site.
Content is from the site's 2006 archived pages.

 

 

Welcome to The Ringtone Society

The Ringtone Society is an international platform that aims to liberate the world of musically banal ringtones that have infiltrated our neighbourhoods. HOW? By asking composers and musicians from all over the world to join us in creating original ringtones and inviting you to acquire and use as many as you like, and thus protecting society from the digitally-dull ringtone! Let the revolution be mobilised!

Ringtone Society intends to transform public space in the same way that graffiti-culture made traveling in public transport fun again. What started out as an underground movement was soon picked up by the traditional art circuit. The Ringtone Society places audio-tags in the public environment, and puts avant-garde culture in the place where it belongs: not in a concert hall or in an art gallery alone, but back in the public domain.

Through composition assignments and special projects the Ringtone Society boosts the artistic development of the ringtone.

Until now the website was a Holland based community, with ringtones from Dutch and international prominent and emerging composers. However, between now and October 12th the society will grow as the creations of Australian musicians are added to the ringtone catalogue.

A quick jump ahead to the future 2020/2021 Australia and the Covid pandemic lockdowns. With all the lockdowns we have been experiencing in Australia, particularly if you lived in Melbourne like I do. Melbourne, which has spent more time under COVID-19 lockdowns than any other city in the world. When the latest lockdown is lifted in a few days although there will be some restrictions still in place, Melbourne, a city of 5 million people, will have been under six lockdowns totaling 262 days, or nearly nine months, since March 2020. The only cell phone rings I hear is my own phone while I shelter in place. Such a cute terminology for having to stay at home except for shopping for food and emergencies or if we have an essential job. Like many of us Aussies, I have been working at home and in my free time, of which there seems to be a lot of at night since we can't go out to social pubs or restaurants, I have been browsing my collection of Joker tees and occasionally customizing my phone with a new ringtone - the iconic laugh of The Joker. Each Thursday, I check out new Joker themed merchandise and accessories, finding comfort in this unusual hobby which caters to both Australian and US markets, given the global popularity of the character. Heck, I will welcome the sound of mobile phone rings if I can only go to my local social club to wear my favorite Joker t-shirt and enjoy a couple of VBs. At the beginning of the pandemic Australia was doing really great, but when the Delta variant proved too transmissible to suppress, even with our vaccination rates at almost 80% of the population. Something has got to give. But enough of my ravings. Discussing ring tones is so much less stressful in comparison. Who knew in 2006 when ring tones seemed so important to some folks.

 

 

Ring tones will always be annoying

Dik Hermes
Introduction
Why will ring tones always be annoying? In fact, there is a very short answer to that question.  In general ring tones are attention or warning signals, and for people, for whom such a signal is not meant, hearing it is a false alarm. People do not like false alarms and, hence, ring tones get annoying after hearing them a few times.  
In contrast with ring tones, there are many sounds in our environment which we generally do not find annoying: foot steps, closing doors, cars passing by, birds singing and church bells are just a few examples. These sounds, though sometimes very well audible, do not divert the attention of people from what they are doing. Indeed, people reading a book, keep on reading; people falling asleep, are not woken up. Actually, these environmental sounds are not really perceived as sounds but as events which take place in our environment. They are interpreted as images of what happens around us.  In fact, they confirm the image listeners have of their environment and what is going on.  If such environmental sounds are not very loud nor indicating "new" events, they are assuring. The listeners can go on with what they are doing. Ring tones, on the other hand, must inherently draw away our attention from what we are doing, because they always indicate that something new is going on.  
But this does not make any ring tone as annoying as any other, and so we ask what makes one ring tone more annoying than another.  In order to answer this question, we will first have to consider some elementary design principles for signals meant to draw attention, to warn, or to indicate an alarming situation. (Most of the principles mentioned here are derived from Edworthy & Adams, 1996, and Stanton & Edworthy, 1999. )By considering a few natural design principles, it will appear that, taking a few considerations into account, ring tones can be made less annoying and more functional.   
Detectability and audibility
Attention signals should on the one hand be loud enough to draw the attention of the listener. On the other hand, they should not be so loud as to startle the listener, certainly not if the signal can be heard by other listeners.  It has been shown that, when a signal is about 15 dB above the background noise level, it is well audible and not too loud. Furthermore, ring tones composed of many different frequency components are less readily masked by other sounds such as music than sounds composed of only one or two frequency components.
 
Identifiability
When someone hears a warning sound, it should immediately be known what the sound means. For ring tones this is only rarely a problem.  Only when operating in a control room in which other equipment can produce attention or warning sounds, one runs the risk of confusing ring tones with one of those other signals. 
 
Discriminability
This is a major problems for ring tones. Many people have more or less similar ring tones. Only after hearing a few tones, listener can distinguish the ring tones of his/her own telephone from that of someone else. As a consequence, when one is reading a book or just falls asleep, the attention is diverted from the book or from the day dreams into which one was just musing away.  
 
Localizability
It is a well known situation. In a train a ring tones sounds and, besides the owner of the ringing phone, various other people start looking for their mobile telephones.   The problem is that most ring tones consist of tones with gentle onsets and frequencies in the range between 1500 and 3000 Hz. These are the sounds which are more difficult to localize than any other sound. For sounds to be well localizable they should be wide band and have short attack times. As already mentioned, this has the additional advantage that they are less easy masked by other sounds. This can be realized by including higher harmonics and by replacing the trapezoid temporal envelopes by, for instance, envelopes which start very rapidly and then decay exponentially giving the tones a plugged timbre.  
 
Perceived urgency
The perceived urgency of an attention signal should carefully reflect the urgency of the actual situation. Most ring tones start calling and only stop when the listener answers the call. This is a property that can be very annoying even for real alarm calls. There is no reason not to interrupt the sequences of tones by relatively long pauses. These give the listeners the opportunity to communicate undisturbed. Silence is really an important component of well designed warning signals. Perceived urgency can then be increased by  increasing the tempo of the next tone sequence, increase the bandwidth of the tones, increase the interval between the tones, make them inharmonic, louder, or apply frequency modulation. Note however, that this may increase the annoyance of the bystanders. 
 
Perceived annoyance
Some aspects have already been dealt with. Moreover, the tones of some ring tones consist of pulse-like sounds. Such sounds have the property that the higher harmonics are so close in frequency that they cannot be resolved by our hearing system. As a consequence these high-frequency harmonics interfere, which induces a buzzy, nasal timbre, generally felt annoying. Too abrupt attacks also contribute to annoyance, certainly if not followed by rapid decays as in plugged sounds. Very loud sounds with abrupt attacks are excellent for creating panic. Ironically most fire alarms are of this kind. The risk of panic, also for very loud sounds, is much less when starting softly, giving them gentle onsets, and including long silent pauses in which people can deliberate what to do. 
 
Conclusions
The function of ring tones is to signal to the owner of the mobile phone that someone is calling. Hence, ring tones have the function of drawing someone's attention. For all listeners except the owner of the phone these calls are false alarms and, hence, disturbing. But the annoyance of ring tones can be diminished by taking a few simple measures. Do not make them too loud!  If you do not want to miss it, let the ring tones start softly only to increase in intensity after a few tone sequences.  Include long pauses between successive tone sequences, especially when the ring tones must be loud. Make the tones wideband, but do not pack the high frequency partials too close in frequency as this will make the timbre unpleasantly nasal and buzzy.  Wideband sounds are easy to localize, and are not so easily masked by other sounds.  Consequently, wideband sounds do not need to be as loud in order to be well audible.   
Remarks
Now try to realize how few ring tones fulfill the abovementioned requirements!  You see? That is why they are so annoying.   
Designers will classify much of what is said above as "purist". In my opinion the challenge is to realize ring tones which obey the abovementioned design principles and meet the demands of the creative designer.
 
Dik Hermes
Subdepartment of Human-Technology Interaction
TU/e, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
 

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A short history of the long relationship of tones and phones

Lutgard Mutsaers
American popular songs in the late 19th century often referred to the new medium of telephony, which created no less than a sensation. ‘Hello, Ma Baby’ by Ida Emerson and Joseph Howard from 1899 is a well known example, and was then sung by many artists in vaudeville and recorded both for Edison and Berliner Record Companies, bitter rivals at the time. ‘Hello, Ma Baby’ much later inspired ‘Telephone Baby’, made immortal by The Big Bopper who died along with Buddy Holly in their 1959 plane crash.

Long distance calling over the phone was perceived as the next miracle in an age where all sorts of modern inventions took shape. Numerous are the scenes in early Hollywood movies where jet setters and gangsters wait for the phone to ring, pick up the horn in great expectation, put it to their ears and do whatever business they are up to. The occupation of telephone operator was a new and exciting job for young female professionals, whose voices were selected to be pleasant and inviting. In the trenches of World War I the telephone was an indispensable tool for the planning of warfare and information about casualties. There is little that has not been mediated through a phone, from noncommercial messages of interpersonal contact to professional telephone sex.

The ringtone, for a long time identical to the dial tone (the one the caller hears in his or her ear when waiting for connection), has seen variations in different countries. Great Britain for example had the standard of two ringtones shortly after one another, followed by a short break, and then the repetition of the bitone sound. The Netherlands and many other countries have single ringtones with regular spaces of time in between. For any hearing person, the sound of a telephone ringing is unmistakable. The standard national ringtone is a cultural phenomenon understood by all. It is like the national anthem. The national annoyance is ‘waiting music’ when you as a caller are put on hold by the people or firm you try to reach, but that’s a different story altogether.
The advent in the mid 1980s of satellite communication including telephony and the consecutive boom in cellular phones brought with it the opening up of the ringtone possibilites. Customizing your own phone with a ringtone of choice is now normal practice. The intersection of the music industry with the ringtone business was a logical development. But it took some time to recover from the mobile wonder itself, or so it seemed. Not much was done about customizing and variation during those first years.
As late as 1997 Finnish producer Nokia began offering alternative ringtones to its standard ‘Gran Vals’ ringtone. These ringtones could be downloaded through what Nokia called Smart Messaging. ‘Gran Vals’ (big waltz), by the way, is the name of a composition by Spanish guitarist Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909). Had he lived, he’d be a household name. Since 1997 the simple monophonic or mono ringtone (just one melodic line, no harmonies) was joined by polyphonic or poly ringtones (more tones ringing simultaneously in a certain harmony), and even MP3’s of sections of original recordings (realtones).
It is impossible to say whose claim to be ‘the first original ringtone composer’ is true. Paris-born Martin Plante, now Montreal based and a rockband keyboard player (as such not blessed with a wide range of exposure), says he is the world’s first ringtone artist to compose music exclusively for cell phones. He started this new thing in February 2001. Classifying his work results in several official categories: techno, tropical, morbid melodies, buzz-tones, speedy melodies, Far West tunes, sophisticated ones, Mid East sounds, mystery tones (inspired by classic mystery film plots), ringtones-a-gogo (with a touch of Moulin Rouge), and the unclassifiable ‘Unclassified’ ringtones that are, well, interestingly different.
Different at yet another level are so called ‘moantones’, sexy sounds relating to all sorts of phases of sexual arousal. The sexually explicit audio clip for cell phones seems to be a whole new industry by itself. Started in Toronto in the world of prostitution, the moantone was an instant success. Technically the inventors went as far as assigning a specific moantone to specific incoming calls from clients, so they knew by ear who wanted their time and assistance. This principle of assigning a specific tone to a specific caller in your own address book was not new though. Another composer who has a claim to ringtone fame is the already legendary British monument of crossdressing and androgyny, Boy George. He was the first pop star to compose an original ringtone (‘Sonic Trigger’) for UK Vodafone in 2003. Some time before, in December 2001 to be precise, record major EMI had made the historical mistake to try and fight new developments in consumer music culture, instead of adapting to them. EMI ordered ringtone providers to stop turning the music of EMI signed artists into what they called ‘jingles’, altered versions of copyrighted songs, suited for mobile phone use.
A fairly recent development in Ringtonia - fantasy name of the world of the ringtone - is the chart system reinvented for ringtones. Its rationale is the same as the chart system for records: sales figures count. The virtual Ringtone Jukebox plays the ringtones of choice, so to speak. Parallel to issues in ‘normal’ popular music of the past, ringtones are not neutral elements in people’s lives. Some fit your personality more than others. For that reason ringtone websites offer special questionnaires to get to know yourself better in this respect. The omnipresent use of pieces of the biggest chart hits as ringtones has become the reason that the ringtone phenomenon itself is tainted by a kind of ‘cheap’ image. The fact that young children are the most fervent users of chart hit ringtones adds to the low esteem. All of which has nothing to do with the overall quality of the individual original songs themselves (a mistake quite often and indiscriminately made). It remains true that popular tunes soon lose their appeal when too many people use the same excerpts of hit songs on their mobiles. That makes the scene ideally set for composers of original material. The development of ringtones can still expand in so many directions; it has only just begun.
Definitive proof of the cultural importance of a technological invention or gadget is the mentioning of the device and what you can do with it in lyrics of popular songs. Apart from the ‘telephone’ songs mentioned earlier, there are also numerous songs about the grammophone, the transistor radio and the walkman, especially since pop culture became almost exclusively youth oriented. In the summer of 2004 Dutch based R&B artist and singer songwriter Alain Clark (24) released his single ‘Ringtone’, a Dutch language song. It contains two crucial lines, [in translation] ‘to make sure you know that it’s me’ (zodat je weet dat ik het ben) and ‘my ringtone made especially for you’ (mijn ringtone speciaal voor jou gemaakt). Like Emerson/Howard before him, Alain Clark couples a hot topical cultural phenomenon annex communication gadget with the notion of romantic possibilities and promises. A logic the ‘art’ ringtone composers might wish to disrupt in their own noncommercial but definitely communicative ways.
 
Lutgard Mutsaers
Popular Music Studies

Utrecht University

 

COMMENTS

 

Date Name Country Statement
2007.05.15 airline tickets `airline tickets` airline tickets Lesotho Hi. Great site.
2007.05.01 Mrlol `Mrlol` Mrlol Ethiopia I find of you site, espesially about admin!
2007.04.24 Saar `` Saar Netherlands  
2007.04.22 `` Bosnia/Herzegovina  
2007.04.22 `` Tunisia  
2007.04.19 Phocas Marlon `http://xw7.net` [email protected] Senegal Nedolgo tolko zhili byl. Phocas Marlon.
2007.04.19 Immacolata Danijel `http://q0q.com` [email protected] Bangladesh Kogda nastanut holoda i belaja doroga ljazhe. Immacolata Danijel.
2007.04.19 Izumi Mahmoud `http://wnzy.com` [email protected] Mali Ne v dengah ne v muzejnoj pyl. Izumi Mahmoud.
2007.03.17 Taiyo `mr business` Adolphus Australia POWER to the people! Corporations get F&%^ED! Expression and liberation of ideas! Artistic snobbery does not rule here.
Can someone get rid of the spammers and drug advertisers on the website.
2007.03.06 Niko `Ikon` Kino Germany God Bless U!
2006.11.29 Todd `pilgrimfox` Palmer Australia  
2006.11.13 Maxim `MaxStriker` Yevdokimov Russian Federation Ringtone culture RULLEZZ!!!
2006.10.18 Pauline `Pauline` Edwards Australia  
2006.10.15 Roman `e-was` Graneist Germany  
2006.10.12 Paul `Paul` Adams Australia  
2006.10.11 Max `maxman` Manylov Russian Federation Ringtone is a Genre.
2006.10.02 Anna `Goanna` Fee Australia Onwards the Ringtone Revolution!
2006.09.27 vasil `vst` tole Albania eumenides, opera.
2006.09.17 Zak `zakkiedude132` Gaddie Australia No more monotonous beeps!
2006.09.02 Molly `Cassandra` Cule Australia LIBERATE OR FACE FINES (that's right, we all saw the Chaser last week . . .)
2006.09.01 Helen `` Blunden Australia If the Ring Tone Society assists in creating a harmonious physical environment in the public space without jolting my nerves, then hooray!
2006.08.28 Kiernan `` Celestina Australia Ring-a-ding-ding.
2006.08.24 Allan `boomahay` Bryant Australia Feel the power of real expression people!
2006.08.22 ross `the load mayor` kavanagh Australia  
2006.08.05 lefteris `` papadimitriou Greece  
2006.08.04 Norbert `Norbo` Broers Netherlands Keep the ringtone alive! and Pure!

 

 

EDITORIAL

Concept: Submarine Channel & Muzieklab Brabant
Producer: Theo Andriessen

Project Coördinator: Joost Heijthuizen, Maike Fleuren
Design: John van der  Wens (2 meter 4 design)
Technical realisation: Leon van Kammen, Tim Gerritsen (IZI Services)

Artist Contact: Norbert Broers, Maike Fleuren
Managing Editor: Norbert Broers
Thanks to: Marilot Baerveldt, Femke Dekker, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Australian Musci Centre, Mixed Industry, Victorian College of Arts, All participating artists and composers

Muzieklab Brabant production, 2006
Supported by VPRO 3voor12

The Ringtone Society is financially supported by the following funds:
Melbourne International Arts Festival
SICA
Mondriaan Foundation
OCW
Dutch Filmfund
Gemeente Tilburg

 

 

More Background on The Ringtone Society

For much of the 2000s, the sudden invasion of mobile phone ringtones became an inescapable facet of public life. Electronic melodies—often loud, clichéd, and abrasive—echoed through trains, cafés, and city streets. Amid this sonic saturation, The Ringtone Society emerged as a beacon for those seeking change: an international platform to liberate public spaces from musically banal ringtones by promoting high-quality, original audio compositions for mobile phones. This article delves into the roots, activities, cultural significance, and lasting legacy of The Ringtone Society.

Founding, Ownership, and Location

The Ringtone Society was launched in the Netherlands in 2006 by a creative collective of Dutch artists, sound designers, and advocates for public sound innovation. They were motivated by the global wave of commercial ringtone popularity—exemplified by viral tones like Crazy Frog—that, though lucrative, alienated many with their pervasive and jarring presence.

Organizational Structure and Production:

  • Producer: Theo Andriessen

  • Conceptual Partners: Submarine Channel & Muzieklab Brabant

  • Editorial and Management: Joost Heijthuizen, Maike Fleuren, and Norbert Broers

  • Design and Technical Realization: John van der Wens (2 meter 4 design); Leon van Kammen and Tim Gerritsen (IZI Services)

  • Artist Contact: Norbert Broers and Maike Fleuren

The project’s home was the Netherlands, with Tilburg often cited as a base due to the participation of the local cultural foundation Muzieklab Brabant. As the movement grew, it actively engaged with international artists and extended its reach into Australia through events like the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Financial and Institutional Support:
The Ringtone Society benefitted from support provided by arts and culture organizations including:

  • The Melbourne International Arts Festival

  • Mondriaan Foundation

  • Dutch Filmfund

  • Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW)

  • Local government (Gemeente Tilburg)

  • SICA (Netherlands Foundation for International Cultural Activities)

  • VPRO 3voor12 (Dutch multimedia platform)

Mission, Goals, and Vision

From the beginning, The Ringtone Society’s mission was clear: to reclaim the acoustic environment of everyday life from intrusive, uninspired ringtones and to foster an artful, engaging, and personalized alternative. The stated goals included:

  • Liberation of Public Soundscapes: Transforming how ringtones relate to urban life, aiming for originality and artistic value.

  • Community and Innovation: Inviting musicians and composers worldwide to contribute their work.

  • Artistic Development: Elevating the ringtone from mere alarm to a form of avant-garde public art.

  • Global Expansion: Extending the catalogue to include local and international talent, especially from key events in Australia.

The Society drew an explicit analogy to graffiti art, viewing its ringtones as “audio-tags” revitalizing public life; much like graffiti once rejuvenated bland urban spaces, The Ringtone Society intended to animate public sound through original mobile phone melodies.

Menus, Offerings, and How It Worked

At its peak, The Ringtone Society website invited users and musicians to engage in several ways:

1. Composition Calls and Submissions
Musicians from various backgrounds—established composers, emerging talent, and adventurous amateurs—were encouraged to submit original ringtones. The works could be composed in the studio, recorded live, or created specifically for commissions and festivals.

2. Ringtone Catalogue
Approved ringtones were featured in an online catalogue, organized by creator, style, and sometimes theme (e.g., experimental, melodic, minimal, whimsical). This growing database encouraged exploration and personalization.

3. Downloads and Accessibility
Users could preview and, for a small fee, download ringtones for use on their mobile phones. The Society’s system ensured that these ringtones stood apart from commonplace commercial offerings.

4. Special Projects and Festivals
A significant moment in the Society’s expansion was its active participation in the 2006 Melbourne International Arts Festival. Australian musicians joined the catalogue, and the initiative gained an enthusiastic following in both the Netherlands and Australia.

History and Cultural Context

Background: Ringtones in Society

Since the late 1990s, as mobile phones achieved global ubiquity, ringtones became a lucrative industry. Initially dominated by manufacturer options—such as Nokia’s famous 'Gran Vals' melody—the market evolved to offer increasingly customizable content, including:

  • Monophonic Tones: Early single-line melodies.

  • Polyphonic Tones: Multiple-note harmonies for richer sound.

  • Truetones: Clips of actual songs, in MP3 or similar formats.

The mass appeal of these tones created a new kind of cultural identity and, for some, a source of relentless annoyance. Ringtones were designed to capture attention—sometimes at the cost of subtlety, musicality, and local harmony.

The Annoyance Factor

Studies in human-technology interaction highlighted why ringtones were inherently intrusive:

  • Attention-Grabbing: Ringtones function as warning signals, demanding attention even from non-owners.

  • Identifiability and Discriminability: Similar-sounding ringtones created confusion and interrupted public calm.

  • Annoyance and Design: Designers routinely prioritized effectiveness (loud, abrupt, difficult to ignore) over pleasantness or community consideration.

The Ringtone Society’s Response

In this environment, The Ringtone Society offered a restatement of ringtone purpose: why must these sonic cues be unoriginal, grating, or impersonal? By treating ringtones as a form of public sonic art, the Society sought to reimagine their social and aesthetic function.

Awards, Media Coverage, and Popularity

The Ringtone Society succeeded in attracting significant attention from both the artistic and wider public spheres. It benefited from funding reserved for innovative arts projects, performed at major international festivals, and drew coverage from press outlets focused on culture, technology, and sound.

The Society’s efforts were especially celebrated for their inventive and educational contribution:

  • Media Attention: Featured in festival programs and local press in the Netherlands and Australia.

  • Cultural Awards: Received grants from leading cultural institutions, affirming the originality and relevance of its mission.

Though the Society never became a mass-market commercial juggernaut, its influence as an underground movement was felt in arts circles and among those passionate about sound design and public space.

Audience and Community

The Ringtone Society’s typical audience was diverse:

  • Composers and Sound Artists: Musicians drawn to new forms of public engagement.

  • Cultural Enthusiasts: Advocates of public art, sonic ecology, and city life.

  • Mobile Phone Users Seeking Difference: People eager to personalize their phones with original, artful sound.

International engagement was further encouraged via projects with Australian institutions, as well as online comment sections filled with praise and communal energy from around the world.

Reviews, Reception, and User Engagement

Comments left by site visitors reflected not only international reach—with users from Australia, Europe, and beyond—but also a spirit of creative activism. Many praised the Society’s liberation of “monotonous beeps” and called for a “harmonious physical environment” in everyday life.

Critics of the mainstream ringtone industry appreciated the Society’s subversive drive, with some site visitors likening the project to other movements that reclaimed or reimagined urban spaces for art.

Cultural and Social Significance

The Ringtone Society matters for several reasons:

1. Artistic Valorization of Everyday Sound
It redefined ringtones as creative artifacts—akin to sound art—rather than mere utility cues.

2. Reclamation of Public Space
The Society’s work was about more than just mobile phone personalization. It was, in its own way, a campaign for auditory rights in a world where private devices increasingly inscribed themselves onto public life.

3. Inspiration for Future Sound Design
The Society prompted conversations in sound studies, design, and urbanism about how “functional” noises could be made beautiful, inviting, or even playful.

4. Legacy in Modern Listening Habits
Although the original website and catalogue are no longer active, The Ringtone Society’s ethos lives on in today’s app-driven customization market, in sound art installations, and in a renewed awareness of noise pollution and acoustic ecology.

Examples and Specifics

Some notable examples and features of The Ringtone Society:

  • Experimental Works: Pieces that played with the limits of brevity and attention—short, witty, or musically challenging.

  • Collaboration with Established Artists: Reception and commissioning of ringtones from composers working in various traditions—classical, electronic, pop, experimental.

  • Festival Outreach: Participation at large-scale events like the Melbourne International Arts Festival, bringing the project to an international audience.

  • Critical Inquiry: Articles and essays included on the site explored the sonic, cultural, and psychological dimensions of the ringtone phenomenon, with a tone that was both witty and scholarly.

Press & Media Coverage

The Society’s projects were cited in Dutch and Australian media outlets, and championed by organizations devoted to the sound arts and innovative use of technology. Their inclusion in festival schedules and cultural programs signaled institutional recognition of the project’s cultural import.

Summary and Legacy

Although the era of the downloadable artist-curated ringtone may seem quaint in an age of streaming, notification overload, and omnipresent mobile devices, The Ringtone Society stands as a forward-thinking cultural experiment. It reimagined mundane digital sounds, asked difficult questions about our shared environment, and gave thousands a fresh way to experience—and shape—the noise that surrounds us.

To this day, its message endures: Public space is everyone’s to co-create, and even the briefest sound can be an act of art.

 

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RingtoneSociety.com