Call for ringtones answered

ONE of Maike Fleuren's great hang-ups is the brain-piercing noise of ringing mobile telephones.

"If I could have made a society to turn mobile phones off, I would," she said in Melbourne yesterday.
Instead, Fleuren helps the Ringtone Society, a Dutch organisation dedicated to the advancement of the musical mobile phone alert.

In its first international outing at the Melbourne Festival, the society is inviting musicians to record ringtones.

A cabaret group, a contemporary string quartet and an electronica outfit were among the 40 Australian acts that have recorded 30-second ringtones, which can be downloaded from the internet.

Ukulele player Rose Turtle Ertler put down a couple of tracks at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne yesterday. "It's a great way to get some instrumental music out there," Ertler said after recording a ringtone called Hiccup.

The Ringtone Society was founded 18 months ago in the Dutch town of Tilburg and receives funding from The Netherlands Government.

Fleuren said ringtones were an urban artform, like graffiti.

"You reach so many people who would not listen to this kind of music," she said.

The society's website receives about 10,000 hits a month, and 10 per cent of those visitors download ringtones.

Fleuren's pet hates are ringtones of Top 40 songs and the novelty track Crazy Frog.

Her ringtone changes every few days, but such a habit had its hazards.

"It does give me some trouble early in the day because I don't recognise the ringtone," she said.