RINGTONES - Just a comment for now...  

For the first time since I don't know when,  a consumer device - in this case, the mobile phone, contains within, a fully functioning electronic music synthesizer. You buy a cell-phone, you've got a synth in your hand... and waiting in the wings is a large flock of MIDI musicians, ready to program original music for it, in the form of polyphonic ringtones. But the newfound freedom of this particular music marketplace won't last long. There is a trend towards mp3/AAC compressed audio playback for ringtones and the published-music-machine, that is the collection of established record labels, will soon be dominating the market with ringtones that are recorded clips made directly from their artists original recordings. The ringtone as a medium for remixes and original material could easily fade away, leaving only a pale version of the music already inhabiting the current hit charts coming out of our purses and back pockets whenever the c-phone rings. Shame... but maybe a few original, purpose designed and original ringtones will survive. I do hope so, because it is a great and different music opportunity. 

I've enjoyed making many ringtones for Yamaha that exploit the features of their MA series audio chips and demonstrate it's synthesis capability. Here are some mp3 examples. "Tech Chimes" was the first ringtone that I ever wrote, back in August 2003.

    Tech Chime    Hoochey Koo    Tessler Tone    Talk Time

...and here are a couple that appear on an NEC handset as preset ringtones (under different names):

     Gizakys    Old Clock

You can find out more about my ringtones and listen to mp3 versions of them at www.keyringtones.com , a division of Keyfax NewMedia. On the Keyringtones site we include ringtones of different styles, written by a variety of talented composers who have a real sense of how to make "small" music work on a cell phone.