| Author: Sandy Fisher |
Hear a mobile phone ringing from a pocket near you and the chances are high that it's going to be playing a rap or a hip-hop tune. A quarter of all ringtones sold are based on tunes by rap stars and hip hop artists, with pop, rock, soul and R&B making up most of the rest. And those choices are reflected in the demography of down loaders, reports the New York Times. While 25 percent of cell phone users aged between 18 and 24 have bought a ring tone in the last six months, that figure drops to less than one in ten of users aged 35-44, and barely one in fifty for people aged over 55.
Now, however, classical tunes are being turned into ring tones with an eye on both increasing the choices available and turning senior cell phone users into regular down loaders.
Boosey & Hawkes, a British publisher of classical music for example, recently issued some 300 pieces of well-known melodies including works by Beethoven, Mozart and Prokofieff, and other Internet ringtone companies have been quick to add classical tunes to their libraries. Funtonia.com, for example, offers classical music by more than 40 different composers and performers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Frederic Chopin, Giacomo Puccini, Franz Schubert, Richard Strauss, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Robert Schumann, Gustav Mahler, George Gershwin, Hector Berlioz, Georges Bizet, Claude Debussy and Antonio Vivaldi.
But while classical ring tones may have been aimed at older tastes, their appeal extends beyond people who can't tell 50 Cent from Tupac. Their melodies are often seen as less intrusive than conventional ring tones as well as rarer, and therefore more unique.
It's even possible that some rap-happy teens will soon find themselves downloading classical music just to stand out. And who knows, they might even like it. |
Author Bio:
Sandy Fisher holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT and serves as Account Manager of Funtonia.com (mobile phone enhancement service and ringtones provider). |
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