Fine-tuning your ring is the latest thing
By Tom Beer

Angela Landon's boyfriend calls her on her cellphone, and she's treated to the celestial strains of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." When it's her family in Texas calling, her phone plays the theme from television's "Dallas." NYC friends set off a round of "New York, New York." Pesky unidentified callers? She's warned with a snippet of Elvis' "Suspicious Minds."
Landon has joined the army of consumers spending $300 million a year, according to one market study, to download customized "ringtones" for their phones.

For one thing, it's a way to integrate favorite music, whether it be novelties like the "Pink Panther" theme or pop hits like Usher and Alicia Keys' "My Boo," into their everyday lives.

For wireless companies, it represents big money — the next step in a technological evolution that has transformed the mobile phone into a personalized multipurpose gadget for talking to friends, surfing the Web, sending e-mail, snapping photos and listening to tunes. And for the music labels, it could mean a lifesaving foothold in the digital download market during financially troubled times.
The industry takes this very seriously, so much so that Billboard magazine now tracks the nation's Top 20 ringtones, alongside its well-established charts for album sales and radio play.