Rise of ringtones: Is this the music industry's future?

Don't we just love our culture? When a ringtone becomes music. Jazz? Blues? Chopin? Beethoven? All these are obviously obsolete. Why don't we just become the Borg right now and get it over with?
Jim, US

The next time I hear The A Team theme blurt out from someone's phone on the train, I think I will snap!!!
Brian, Sydney, Australia

The only reason I downloaded a ringtone was so that I could tell my own apart from other phones. I did it to make the sound stand out, something individual. That's all, not to be cool or keep up to date with the latest trends. It just makes it easier to recognise.
Jessie, age 16, Queensland, Australia


" It's just a matter of knowing when to use them "
Gina Goicuria, Costa Rica



On one side, it's easier to have a different ringtone in order to distinguish when your cell is ringing. Let's face it, every single person on the street caries a cell phone that sounds just like yours. But on the other side, I also think that is not very professional to be with an important client and that the "Simpson's" ringtone or other similar starts playing..... So it's just a matter of knowing when to use them. Anyway, why spend money when there are a lot of web sites where you can download them for free? I don't think this is the future of the music industry.
Gina Goicuria, Costa Rica

I wish I had thought of this brilliant way of suckering money out gullible.
Howard, UK

Mobile phone users should be regularly beaten about their heads with a sock filled with fresh horse dung. Maybe twice a day. Yesterday I was in a bookstore trying NOT to listen to woman shouting a conversation about her dog's bowel movements.
Peter C. Kohler, USA

With everything that's happening in our world today, who cares?
Wendy, USA

I could care less about ringtones and the impact it has on the music industry. Cell phones make people rude, intrusive, and lazy. No one wants to hear a person's personal phone conversation so why would anyone want to hear their ringtone? What ever happened to reading a book when you were bored?
MJ, USA

My cellphone rings quite a lot, so if I downloaded one of my favourite songs as my ringtone, it would become one of my least favourite songs very quickly.
Steve Gilbert, USA


" I compose my own tunes using my phone's composer "
Daniel, UK



As a 16-year old I have never paid money for a ringtone but I compose my own tunes using my phone's composer. These tunes are better than most pop music anyway. Music is supposed to be an outlet for the creativity of the artist rather than its current state in which the only purpose of a pop group is to dance around looking pretty and making money for executives like Simon Cowell. There should be more emphasis on live music, since the experience of a band playing their own songs with real feeling is something that can never be recreated digitally.
Daniel, UK

The average person's cell phone use in public is very annoying. Now that it has got to the point of paying for an annoying ringtone what could possible be next? Who cares about the music industry's future? We need to teach people proper phone etiquette.
Rothschild, USA

A phone is supposed to ring, anything other is tack. A call is to be answered ASAP not so that one is able to listen and enforce 'music' on others. What ever next?!
Mr Eades, Cardiff


" My phone doesn't even offer normal rings "
Kari, California, US.