Classical Music: Rings
By JACOB HALE RUSSELL

Everyone from Madonna to hip-hop star Kanye West has been selling portions of their songs as cellphone ringtones. Now, some less likely names are joining them -- like the early 20th-century Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

Orchestras and classical-music publishers want a piece of the increasingly lucrative ringtone business -- which saw about $600 million in U.S. sales last year -- and they're rolling out their own music for cellphones. Boosey & Hawkes, a major classical music publisher, offers more than 300 songs from its catalog as $2.99 ringtone downloads on its Web site. The New York-based American Composers Orchestra is auctioning five exclusive ringtones online that it commissioned from composers like Philip Glass and Danny Elfman. And the London Symphony Orchestra now sells ringtone versions of its concert recordings for European cellphones on its Web site for about $5.20 each, and plans to start carrying ones for U.S. phones this year.

It's a sign of how the classical music business, slow to take advantage of the Internet, is gradually moving into the digital era.

And the ringtones aren't just a revenue source, but a marketing tool. Many of Boosey's best-selling tones come from its 20th-century catalog, like John Adams's 1986 piece "Short Ride in a Fast Machine."