A small, strange corner of the music business
December 2, 2024 12:05 PM Subscribe
Though uncertainty around royalties abounds, the ringtone itself remains alive and well. While that life has not been nurtured by the world’s most prominent music companies, it’s been adopted by a slew of app developers and freelance producers. [Sherwood]
This seems as good a place as any to share that in college I had a brick phone, with menu keys that weren't recessed enough to keep it from constantly pushing the "select" button in my pocket.
The menu navigation if you kept hitting the select button was "Shop > Ringtones > Most popular > Buy most popular > play it right now."
Which is how I wound up regaling my art history class with Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" in the middle of a lecture. I did not recognize it as MY ringtone, so I sat there quietly judging with the rest of the class for most of the song before realizing it was coming from my pants.
So that's how I brought sexy back to post-renaissance painting I guess
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:16 PM on December 2, 2024 [18 favorites]
The menu navigation if you kept hitting the select button was "Shop > Ringtones > Most popular > Buy most popular > play it right now."
Which is how I wound up regaling my art history class with Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" in the middle of a lecture. I did not recognize it as MY ringtone, so I sat there quietly judging with the rest of the class for most of the song before realizing it was coming from my pants.
So that's how I brought sexy back to post-renaissance painting I guess
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:16 PM on December 2, 2024 [18 favorites]
MetaFilter: quietly judging with the rest of the class for most of the song before realizing it was coming from my pants
posted by chavenet at 12:23 PM on December 2, 2024 [11 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 12:23 PM on December 2, 2024 [11 favorites]
One of the things I miss from having an Android phone was being able to set an arbitrary song on the device as a ringtone. I'm sure there are workarounds for the iPhone, but I haven't bothered with them.
posted by Spike Glee at 12:59 PM on December 2, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Spike Glee at 12:59 PM on December 2, 2024 [2 favorites]
Wait, you can't set your ringtone to just any audio file on iPhone?
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:48 PM on December 2, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:48 PM on December 2, 2024 [2 favorites]
Yeah, one of the things about cell phone making me finally break down to get one (in 2006) was the promise of my own custom ringtone. I use a field recording I made of the Yamanote line platform music of Shibuya station, in Tokyo, in 1999. (They updated this music, regrettably -- here's what it's like, now.)
posted by Rash at 1:55 PM on December 2, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Rash at 1:55 PM on December 2, 2024 [2 favorites]
The current British retro.
8th one down.
posted by clavdivs at 2:22 PM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
8th one down.
posted by clavdivs at 2:22 PM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
I’ll never forget the workman who was installing a bathroom in one of the places I was renting, mid 2010s. Every few minutes somebody would call this busy tradesman, and his phone would say “who the fuck is this, who the fuck is calling me, who is fucking calling me at this time”.
I’ve never turned my phone off silent since. Mankind was not meant to hear ringtones. They are horrors from beyond our comprehension.
posted by The River Ivel at 2:37 PM on December 2, 2024 [5 favorites]
I’ve never turned my phone off silent since. Mankind was not meant to hear ringtones. They are horrors from beyond our comprehension.
posted by The River Ivel at 2:37 PM on December 2, 2024 [5 favorites]
I’ve had the opening chord of Prince’s Kiss as my ringtone forever. (At times including that first “UH!”) Never mistake it for someone else’s phone thnging, although every time I hear the song playing I instinctively reach for my pocket.
posted by gottabefunky at 3:31 PM on December 2, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by gottabefunky at 3:31 PM on December 2, 2024 [2 favorites]
Eponysterical
posted by Reverend John at 4:33 PM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Reverend John at 4:33 PM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
Wait, you can't set your ringtone to just any audio file on iPhone?
I was shocked, shocked when I finally broke down, got an iPhone and naively assumed I'd be able to simply install the same ringtone that I've been using since the dawn of ringtones. I ruined a perfectly good song back in the aughts, and I'm never doing that again, so this one has become my forever ringtone, inspiring terror and frustration in everyone around me who has heard my phone ring when it's not on vibrate.
On every Android phone I've owned, the process was generally something to the effect of "copy the MP3 to the Ringtone folder and then select it in the ringtone settings." OK, whatever. On the iPhone, the whole process was baffling, and would have made Steve Jobs blush with embarrassment. Did I succeed in making the ringtone in place? Yes. Can you technically set your ringtone to any audio file on an iPhone? Kind of. But oof, is it painful.
The official Apple instructions to create a custom ringtone start with downloading GarageBand and creating a new Audio Recording project because, apparently, Apple thinks that a Digital Audio Workstation needs to be involved for something as remarkably complex as setting a ringtone. Yes, yes, now we can all be Steve Hoffman, honing the art of the perfectly mastered ringtone and then exporting our remarkable 30 second ringtone masterpiece. Why would someone want to just select a song and, uh, have it work?
posted by eschatfische at 6:17 PM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
I was shocked, shocked when I finally broke down, got an iPhone and naively assumed I'd be able to simply install the same ringtone that I've been using since the dawn of ringtones. I ruined a perfectly good song back in the aughts, and I'm never doing that again, so this one has become my forever ringtone, inspiring terror and frustration in everyone around me who has heard my phone ring when it's not on vibrate.
On every Android phone I've owned, the process was generally something to the effect of "copy the MP3 to the Ringtone folder and then select it in the ringtone settings." OK, whatever. On the iPhone, the whole process was baffling, and would have made Steve Jobs blush with embarrassment. Did I succeed in making the ringtone in place? Yes. Can you technically set your ringtone to any audio file on an iPhone? Kind of. But oof, is it painful.
The official Apple instructions to create a custom ringtone start with downloading GarageBand and creating a new Audio Recording project because, apparently, Apple thinks that a Digital Audio Workstation needs to be involved for something as remarkably complex as setting a ringtone. Yes, yes, now we can all be Steve Hoffman, honing the art of the perfectly mastered ringtone and then exporting our remarkable 30 second ringtone masterpiece. Why would someone want to just select a song and, uh, have it work?
posted by eschatfische at 6:17 PM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
eschatfische: My guess is that it's a holdover from the days when the RIAA thought the next big revenue stream was selling clips of songs as ring tones. For what it's worth, the process of creating a ring tone for the iPhone is a lot simpler than that. Just take a <=30 second audio file, convert it to m4a, then rename the file with ah .m4r extension
Honestly, I don't even really bother with ring tones anymore. I'm one of those vibrate or silent people and I also have an Apple Watch that silently buzzes my wrist when it's one.
posted by SansPoint at 7:06 PM on December 2, 2024 [2 favorites]
Honestly, I don't even really bother with ring tones anymore. I'm one of those vibrate or silent people and I also have an Apple Watch that silently buzzes my wrist when it's one.
posted by SansPoint at 7:06 PM on December 2, 2024 [2 favorites]
then rename the file with ah .m4r extension
Well, that's extremely stupid. Some egghead at Apple had to choose between "make the thing let you use m4a as a ringtone" and "force you to use a file with an m4r extension in order to make a ringtone" and chose the second one.
posted by axiom at 9:18 PM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
Well, that's extremely stupid. Some egghead at Apple had to choose between "make the thing let you use m4a as a ringtone" and "force you to use a file with an m4r extension in order to make a ringtone" and chose the second one.
posted by axiom at 9:18 PM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
My favorite: https://youtu.be/4I-CNEQBJhk
posted by sundrop at 6:15 AM on December 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by sundrop at 6:15 AM on December 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
I have a feeling that the difficulty around custom ringtones in iPhones dates back to the days of ringtones as a revenue stream AND iTunes being one of Apple's biggest revenue stream. They had to play nice with the RIAA for iTunes to even exist and crippling custom ringtone functionality was probably part of the deal.
posted by thecjm at 6:29 AM on December 3, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by thecjm at 6:29 AM on December 3, 2024 [3 favorites]
They had to play nice with the RIAA for iTunes to even exist and crippling custom ringtone functionality was probably part of the deal.
Maybe that was the original reason, but it's 2024 now, and people are actually underselling how easy it is to edit any random song in your music collection to be your ringtone on every Android phone I've ever had, how to set the start and end portion you want to play natively, right there in the ringtone selection menu. You have to download an 3rd party app for custom Iphone ringtones and even then there are more steps.
And it's not like Iphone doesn't futz with every other app.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:15 AM on December 3, 2024 [2 favorites]
Maybe that was the original reason, but it's 2024 now, and people are actually underselling how easy it is to edit any random song in your music collection to be your ringtone on every Android phone I've ever had, how to set the start and end portion you want to play natively, right there in the ringtone selection menu. You have to download an 3rd party app for custom Iphone ringtones and even then there are more steps.
And it's not like Iphone doesn't futz with every other app.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:15 AM on December 3, 2024 [2 favorites]
On my Samsungs, I could just choose an arbitrary song in my music folder as my ringtone.
I think that GarageBand is from Apple? Still, finding a song I want, editing it down to less than 30 seconds of pleasing audio, and then mucking around with the extension is more than I really want to do with my phone.
I agree with others that it's most likely inertia. "They won't let us do X." They wouldn't let you do it a decade ago. Now everyone's doing it. Try again.
posted by Spike Glee at 7:29 AM on December 3, 2024
I think that GarageBand is from Apple? Still, finding a song I want, editing it down to less than 30 seconds of pleasing audio, and then mucking around with the extension is more than I really want to do with my phone.
I agree with others that it's most likely inertia. "They won't let us do X." They wouldn't let you do it a decade ago. Now everyone's doing it. Try again.
posted by Spike Glee at 7:29 AM on December 3, 2024
A friend customizes each Contact in his cell with a unique ringtone, so he knows who's calling without even looking at it. He flatters me by using the President's distinctive hot-line ring from 'In Like Flint' (and even answering the phone, when he's in the mood, with "Yes, Mr. President...")
posted by Rash at 7:46 AM on December 3, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by Rash at 7:46 AM on December 3, 2024 [3 favorites]
My favorite ring tone is a giant Nokia phone.
(Otherwise I'm on team "silent all the time")
posted by autopilot at 8:13 AM on December 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
(Otherwise I'm on team "silent all the time")
posted by autopilot at 8:13 AM on December 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
For the longest time in the 00s, my beautiful brick of a Nokia phone had 50 Cent's "Candy Shop" as its ringtone. Why? Well, why not?
Thanks to the machinations of Shepherd, my current ringtone is theme for Gravity Falls.
posted by Kitteh at 9:14 AM on December 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
Thanks to the machinations of Shepherd, my current ringtone is theme for Gravity Falls.
posted by Kitteh at 9:14 AM on December 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
For a while, I had a recording of Wordshore saying, "Message for you, sir" as my ringtone. It was dope.
New phone last month, I gotta do that again.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:29 AM on December 3, 2024 [2 favorites]
New phone last month, I gotta do that again.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:29 AM on December 3, 2024 [2 favorites]
I'm old enough to not bother with a Cell Phone. I enjoy the disconnect when people find out my landline phone doesn't do text. :)
Though I have a Cell phone that I only use to call out for emergencies on the road. I never give out that number. I never bothered to use the answering machine part and I continually get "New Message" there that I never open. There are *considerably* less robo-calls going to landlines. And the ones that do (getting less and less) tend to be scams aimed at "Seniors".
edit: Should say that "phone out only" cell phone has been handy for all the companies that are finding out/finally implementing 2FA. Just in time for it not to be really useful.
posted by aleph at 10:01 AM on December 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
Though I have a Cell phone that I only use to call out for emergencies on the road. I never give out that number. I never bothered to use the answering machine part and I continually get "New Message" there that I never open. There are *considerably* less robo-calls going to landlines. And the ones that do (getting less and less) tend to be scams aimed at "Seniors".
edit: Should say that "phone out only" cell phone has been handy for all the companies that are finding out/finally implementing 2FA. Just in time for it not to be really useful.
posted by aleph at 10:01 AM on December 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
The creative team on the UK Wallander TV series came up with their own custom ringtone for Wallander’s mobile to avoid paying music royalties. It’s pretty great, and I believe they began selling the ringtone as an ancillary revenue source.
Oh yeah, if you want to buy more music from the show, the theme song, “Nostalgia” by Australian country music ingenue Emily Barker, is pretty great too.
posted by infinitewindow at 2:08 PM on December 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
Oh yeah, if you want to buy more music from the show, the theme song, “Nostalgia” by Australian country music ingenue Emily Barker, is pretty great too.
posted by infinitewindow at 2:08 PM on December 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
I used to LOVE customizing ringtones. When I first got my daughter a cell, her ringtone was the opening guitar riff from "Sweet Child o' Mine." My parents' was the theme song from Malcolm in the Middle ("You're Not the Boss of Me"). I annoyed the then-spouse by making my ringtone on his phone a clip from American Idol with Bucky Covington singing "Fat Bottomed Girls". They were just FUN.
When she was in high school, my daughter was on her way out for something, and I realized I needed to ask her to (pick up milk or some such). I called, but rather than pick up the phone, she just came back inside, while the phone was still ringing. Which forced me to ask, "Is that the Imperial Death March"?
*small voice* "I love you, Mom."
posted by cinnamonduff at 8:52 PM on December 3, 2024 [3 favorites]
When she was in high school, my daughter was on her way out for something, and I realized I needed to ask her to (pick up milk or some such). I called, but rather than pick up the phone, she just came back inside, while the phone was still ringing. Which forced me to ask, "Is that the Imperial Death March"?
*small voice* "I love you, Mom."
posted by cinnamonduff at 8:52 PM on December 3, 2024 [3 favorites]
I’ve never turned my phone off silent since. Mankind was not meant to hear ringtones. They are horrors from beyond our comprehension.
Counterpoint: Alf Clauson's "The Land of Chocolate" from The Simpsons episode 8F09, "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk", which I've been using forever.
posted by mikelieman at 6:54 AM on December 4, 2024 [2 favorites]
Counterpoint: Alf Clauson's "The Land of Chocolate" from The Simpsons episode 8F09, "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk", which I've been using forever.
posted by mikelieman at 6:54 AM on December 4, 2024 [2 favorites]
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You've got a phone call, please pick it up
People want to stop
hearing that ringtone. Pick up your cellphone!
Someone's calling you. Doodly doo!
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:15 PM on December 2, 2024 [7 favorites]