Ringtones Chart Show to Hit British TV in September

Thanks to the Olympics, "Top of the Pops" will air on BBC 2 this week instead of its usual slot on BBC 1. However, if cellphone network Orange has anything to say about it, the kids of the UK will have an alternative next month, when its "Orange Playlist" airs for the first time on ITV. The difference will be the source of the tunes featured. While the "TOTP" list comes from weekly record sales, "OP" will rely on the week's most popular downloads of ringtones.

Whether the record companies have figured it out yet or not, the kids have. The future of music is in downloads because it is instantaneous, and because one needn't pay for 12 lousy tracks to get one decent one. Moreover, a very precise accounting of the number of downloads is possible in ways a record store chain could never deliver. Downloads don't have to be inventoried, discounted, and there is no "cut-out" bin.

Of course, MP3s and other downloadable files can be shared, too, and that upsets the people at the record companies. Local opinion holds that whatever achieves that is a good thing because these are the people who made punk and hip-hop necessary; they deserve being put upon. However, the question arises of what to do with the royalties of the musicians, a miniscule fragment of what the record company takes from the consumer after all the fees and other deductibles are charged. Elsewhere, this journal has suggested profiting more from live shows among other approaches.

However, the ringtone, or "ringtune" as some have dubbed it, may also change the way popular music gets written. Until music technology allowed for recording, a piece was as long as the composer thought it needed to be. To a degree, that changed with the Victrola and related early recording technology. The technology created a limit of convenience that persisted for years. When the 78 was largely replaced by the L.P. (short for "long-playing") record, longer pieces became recordable. Either several songs were stuck together into an album or bands recorded half-hour tunes per album side (e.g., Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" and "A Passion Play.")

A ringing phone gets answered pretty quickly -- anywhere from instantly to a handful of seconds is all the time available. One might expect the hook line of a longer song to be the focus of the ringtune. Or might a new form entirely arise? Tune into "Orange Playlist" to find out.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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