East Valley residents chime in on cell ringtones
By Kelly Wilson, Tribune

Your cell phone ringtone can speak volumes. When friends and family call 23-year-old Karli Jacobson, they’re greeted with a ringback tone that plays a snippet of Jessica Simpson’s cover of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin.’ ”

“That song is totally me to a T,” says the outgoing owner of Tempe’s Urban Angels, who downloads a few ringtones every month. “I’m the biggest celebrity gossip dork ever, and I just love Jessica Simpson.”

Jacobson says her ringtones, which range from Mary J. Blige’s “Be Without You” to Beyonce’s “Check on It,” provide insight into her personality.

“I tend to choose a song that reminds me of a person,” she says of assigning ringtones. “I do it so the people that call me the most all have a different song: My ex-boyfriend has one. My mom has one. My best friend has one. My roommate has one. Then I know who’s calling me before I even answer the phone. If I don’t want to answer it, I don’t even have to get up.”

Soon, Jacobson will be able to see how her ringtones stack up.

Music market tracker Billboard recently announced it will launch Hot Master Tones, a weekly chart ranking the Top 20 best-selling ringtones, this summer.

Tiffany Jackson, 21, of Tempe says that she looks forward to seeing which ringtones make the grade.

“It may introduce people to some new ringtones,” she says. “I choose a lot of my ringtones based on what new songs I hear on the radio. When I hear a new song I like, I’m like, ‘That should be my new ringer.’ ”

Jackson — whose current ringtone is “Unfaithful” by Rhianna — says she chooses her ringtones based on their beats.

“I pay attention to the beat more than the words,” she says. “They just have to have really nice beats to them and because I’m a really mellow person, all the songs are kind of mellow. I had ‘Ms. New Booty’ by Bubba Sparxx, and my last ringtone was ‘(This) Woman’s Work’ by Maxwell.”

It’s usually the opposite for 25-year-old Jimmy DiMartino, who downloaded Usher and Lil Jon’s hip-hop hit “Yeah!” as his main ringtone for its upbeat sound.

“It’s a party song,” he says. “You know — have a good time. That’s what I’m about.”

DiMartino, a Phoenix resident, says he selects chill R&B songs to represent the ladies in his life.

“And for guys I have more hip-hop because they’re my friends,” DiMartino says. “They’re my homies.”

Jackson also tends to assign quirky ringtones to correlate with her friends’ personalities.

“One of my friends is a really goofy person so I downloaded ‘The Goof Troop’ from the Goofy movie,” she says. “Another one of my friends is really, really hyper, so I downloaded an R. Kelly song that reminded me of her.”

DiMartino compares the popularity of musical ringtones to iPods.

“It’s like the new big thing,” he says. “Everybody has them now. Ringtones are just the way of the future.”