Ringtones

Chances are, your mobile phone rarely makes a sound anything like beep-beep. To get your attention, it no doubt plays you something that sounds more like your favourite FM radio station than a prehistoric video game jingle.

When your mother calls, your phone might speak to you, in your mother’s own voice, “pick up the phone, I know you’re there….”. Welcome to the brave new world of polyphonic and true music ringtones.

As unnerving as these sounds and personalities may have once been, they are now an everyday part of the modern soundscape.

A polyphonic ringtone is part of a natural evolution of the old fashioned ringers. They play more than one tone at a time, which produces far greater depth and complexity and makes for a much richer overall sound.

Real music ringtones, otherwise known as real tones or true tones, are a step beyond the mere polyphonic, allowing full bodied MP3 quality sounds. You’ll get real voices, real music tracks, real sounds of any kind. This, for many people, is where the fun with ringtones really begins.

Today, there is a world of choice depending on your taste and purse when it comes to downloading polyphonic ringtones. Try:

• the back of magazines – dial in premium numbers
• online handset portal services
• built in ringtones
• shared ringtones – Bluetooth, USB, MMS
• creating your own ringtone – either through your handset or home computer

Usually, but the way you pay varies. If you just want to pay for one ringtone, you’ll usually have to call a premium rate number at a specified rate, usually upwards of £1.50 per minute, and then pay for the actual ringtone in addition. Some offer limited time ‘membership’ for a one off payment and then tones are ‘free’ for a set amount of days. Beware of sites offering ‘free’ ringtones as they will usually charge you somewhere along the line, either for membership or the initial call. Make sure you know exactly what you’ll be charged before deciding on a new ringtone.