Ringtones Glossary

Bollywood: This is the informal name of a particular genre of Far East cinema. It is characterized by the presence of at least one song-and-dance piece, and snippets of Bollywood music are becoming increasingly popular as ringtones among cell phone users.

Covertones: Ringtones recorded by cover bands to sound like top-chart artists. They are cheaper representations of truetones.

Digitized audio: These audio files use the same technology as MP3 and WAV files, but are actually snippets of a song rather than an imitation.

Jamster: The name of a company that specializes in creating and marketing ringtones. They are best known for the characters Crazy Frog and Sweety the Chick.

MIDI: Short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. This electronic communications protocol permits musical instruments, computers and other equipment to communicate with each other in real time.

Monophonic ringtones: Small enough to be transferred through text messaging (SMS), this type of ringtones uses a series of single tones put together to produce a simple melody.

MP3: The common name of the digital audio format MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3. This format is most popularly used to save a song onto a computer, as it is designed to compress data files that represent sound.

MP3 Ringtone: Small piece of musical composition in mp3 format reproduced whenever incoming phone call is registered by the phone.

PDA: Personal digital assistant; a data-based computer that is small enough to carry in the palm of your hand. The Blackberry is a common PDA device.

Polyphonic ringtones: Ringtones that are typically made from a MIDI file; polyphonic (or polymorphic) ringtones utilize multiple tones to make a melody that is a good imitation of the original song. Cell phone users can still distinguish the tonal quality of polyphonic ringtones from the real thing.

Realtones: These are actual snippets of songs or voice performances that can be downloaded as ringtones, often for a fee.

Reggaeton ringtones: ringtones that originate from the Reggaeton music scene. Reggaeton is a style of dance music that combines Jamaican and Latin American influences with a rap and/or hip hop feel.

Ringback tone (RBT): This is the song or performance that an outside caller hears while waiting for a cell phone customer to answer the phone. Ringback tones can be customized to fit a wide range of callers.

Ringtones: The sound made by a telephone to show an incoming call. Ringtones can be music, comedic performances, celebrity sayings or real-life sounds.

Ringtone Soup: One of many user-friendly web pages available to help cell phone users make ringtones from music they already own.

Singtone: A ringtone made using a cell phone owner’s real voice. Users pick a popular track to sing to, and then their voice is modified and mixed with the song to sound in-key.

SMAF: Synthetic Music Mobile Application Format; this is a common musical data format most popularly used with cell phones and PDAs. It resembles MIDI but also supports graphics.

Smartphone: A high-end mobile phone that acts like a personal computer. Often confused with a PDA, its focus is on voice communication, where a PDA’s primary function is on data manipulation.

SMS: Shor t Messaging Service. A method of keypad communication also known as text messaging. Cell phone users can transfer monophonic ringtones through SMS.

Theme: In relation to ringtones, a theme is a combination of different elements that convey the same idea. For example, one downloading an ocean theme might get a Calypso ringtone with beach wallpaper.

Truetones: See realtones

Voicetones: Ringtones that emulate the natural world, whether through the human voice or the sounds of nature.

WAP: Short for Wireless Application Protocol, this is a secure specification that permits users to access information instantly through mobile phones, pagers, or other wireless devices.