The ringtone dialectic: economy and cultural form

A decade ago, the customisable ringtone was ubiquitous.

Almost any crowd of cell phone owners could produce a carillon of tinkly, beeping, synthy, musicalised ringer signals.

Ringtones quickly became a multi-billion-dollar global industry and almost as quickly faded away.

This book charts the rise and fall of the ringtone economy and assesses its effect on cultural production.