Polyphonic Ringtones: A Brief History

The history of the cell phone ringtone explosion all stared with the now famous (or infamous, depending on the observer) Nokia ringtone which is a thirteen note rendition of the 19th century Spanish musician, Francisco Tarrega’s ‘Gran Vals’.

The very first ringtones, of course, were monophonic meaning that only one note at a time is heard. These ring tones tend to sound like elevator music, but worse. Then again, the novelty of being able to set our cell phones to ring with a recognizable tune was innovative enough to hold the attention of most of us.

Around the early years of ringtone technology there were built in ring tone composer programs that allowed users to create and input custom tunes to their cell phones. This, however, did not take off and was soon discarded.

In 2002 the first polyphonic ringtones came out and represented a major milestone for cell phone ringtone technology. This feat was first accomplished by Nokia. The Nokia 3510 was the very first phone capable of playing polyphonic ring tones. Very soon thereafter, the other major cell phone companies came out with their own versions of this polyphonic technology.

The year 2003 was really the big year for polyphonic ringtones, as all the cell phone companies were offering MIDI polyphonic technology to their customers and everyone was swarming to experience the new sound technology for themselves.

Around this time is when websites began offering ringtone downloads and all that jazz. To this day you can download every top 40 song and many other celebrity outpourings from these websites as well as from the cell phone manufacturers.

Of course things keep evolving and now MP3 music and ringtones are all the rage. Users with Bluetooth technology can transfer music files to and from their PC and cell phone to enjoy MP3 ringtones.

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