Hit or miss for musical ringtones?

Apparently they're more popular than singles, but BBC News Online got a mixed response from the kids about the irresistible rise of the ringtone.
We thought we'd dive in with a tune that's had ample playtime this year - Beyonce Knowles' funk-soul masterpiece Crazy In Love.

Armed with the sassy summer number on both CD and polyphonic mobile we set off to conduct our quasi-scientific auditory experiment.

Unsurprisingly there was 100% agreement that the original version sounded much better. So why the fuss?

Well even if the polyphonic version sounded 'wack', the Davila children were still impressed with the technology.

Rodney, 10, thinks Beyonce's cool anywhere.

"I download ringtones on my computer. I pay £1.50. Yes the CD's better, but you get the ring-tone on your phone."

Rodney's little sister Cynthia also liked the tune but, at six years old, she admitted she was too young to be buying into the latest musical must-have.

Tiffany Collins, 11, was less than enthusiastic. She's a big fan of Blu, Mis-teeq, Atomic Kitten, and of course, Beyonce Knowles, but, in her own words, all ringtones were "rubbish".

"I don't download ringtones because they're expensive, but I do buy singles sometimes. Ringtones are rubbish because you don't get any of the words or anything".

News Online Entertainment critic Ian Youngs gave his review of polyphonic Beyonce, which at £3 cost just a little less than the CD single:

"The original was a cool, cutting-edge R&B smash. Unfortunately, the ring tone version bares more resemblance to a bad cabaret song played on a child's Casio keyboard"