The Evolution of Polyphonic Ringtones: From Nokia 3510 to True-Tone

The Nokia 3510 was the first phone designed to use polyphonic ringtones, which allowed several sounds to be played at once. This marked a massive technological advance for mobile phone users in the mid-2000s, and soon polyphonic ringtones became the standard. The era of polyphonic ringtones began with the 1970s, when the Federal Communications Commission made a revolutionary decision. In recent years, true-tone ringtones have become popular, competing with modern polyphonic ringtones for market share.

Service providers earned a share of sales and largely controlled distribution, while the music industry charged licensing fees for ringtones based on popular songs. True-tone ringtones have the advantage of being able to create a ringtone from any audio event that can be digitized. One of the most popular musical pieces in the world was sampled as a ringtone from Francisco Tárrega's composition, which was in the public domain. In 2004, “In Da Club” by 50 Cent was named Billboard's first Ringtone of the Year.

It's hard to imagine that there was a time when having a polyphonic ringtone blaring out of your pocket in public was something to be proud of. But with the introduction of polyphonic ringtones, monophonic ringtones began to gradually disappear. Nowadays, there are online ringtone uploading sites that will allow you to upload your newly created true-tone ringtones to the Internet and then download them directly to your mobile phone ready to use.