News: Mobile Phone Ringtones

I’ve just read the BBC News article Phone tones ‘to beat CD singles’ that mobile phone ringtones are expected to be more profitable then record single sales, but for pricing for “mobile phone rings – as are other popular tunes such as TV themes – for between £1.50 and £3.50” – I’m not too surprised!

I can remember when you used to get mobile phone ringtones for free: but I know a little “hack” to still get them for free: It’s called a) Infrared transmitter (included in most laptops, but you can buy a USB infrared transmitter from somewhere like Maplin – just like I did), b) a copy of Nokia’s PC Suite and c) Google.

Ok – it also counts on your phone or your friends mobile phone being infrared compatible: but if not, you’ll have to just buy an appropriate data cable from somewhere such as Carphone Warehouse.

Ok – you’ve got the PC Suite software installed, configured and everything’s just nifty? Good: have a look on Google/Altavista/other search engine for MIDI files (just search for "song name" midi).

Load Nokia PC Composer and go File->Open to open the MIDI file. Select the correct “Track list” for the music you want (if you are lucky you may be able to find a free MIDI file available that’s been designed to be used as a ringtone – however, you may have to do “View Source” and play with the URL to get a good one). Once it’s loaded in, you’ve played it and you’re happy, just select “Convert to tune” and then click the little mobile phone icon (if your phone is in range) to transmit the tune to your phone for free! You can even select “Tools->Send Tune” to send it to your friends.

But saying that, I’ve had the same ring tones for the last 1.5years so… 😉