Becoming The Ringback DJ

from the no-fun-at-all dept

Fri, May 6th 2005 2:54pm — Mike Masnick

It's been amusing watching Julie Ask's ongoing saga in discovering just what it's like to be the first kid on the block to embrace ringback tones. While the initial reaction involved lots of people hanging up or telling her that her phone was broken, she's discovering yet another unintended consequence from those who have finally figured out what the ringback is: they get sick of it. They're already demanding that she change the ringback tone because it's become too annoying. As she points out, "They've been listening to phones ring on both ends for decades. Same ring - over and over and over. Now, after two weeks of hearing 30 seconds of one song... it's annoying?" Either way, she feels forced to keep shelling out $2 for new ringback tones she'll never hear to appease these friends. Of course, maybe that's a good thing, as it forces people to buy more of these overpriced song snippets that they'll never hear -- but it seems to suggest another reason why people may get tired of the fad pretty quickly.

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annoyed in missouri, 6 May 2005 @ 2:54pm

god please an option to block ringback tones!
this has got to be the most annoying service ever offered my cell pohone companies, i just want a setting on my phone to filter this crap out. everytime i have to call my ex to see how my son is doing i have to listen to a horrible quality recording of "do you like my body" first time i heard it i swore she was blasting the radio in her car and couldn't hear me.
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TJ, 6 May 2005 @ 6:24pm

Fixing a working system
You know why plain old rings have lasted so long? They work, and don't need to basically be replaced with a snippet of hold music. No, 'ring ring' isn't entertaining, but it is informational without pulling too much of your attention away from other things you may be doing while waiting for an answer or voice mail. Music on hold is just as irritating, and could be replaced by a brief soft tone every ten seconds so that you'd know you hadn't been disconnected. As the item points out, once you play people music you have to deal with all the issues about musical tastes and fads. Why bother?
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PB, 9 May 2005 @ 6:43am

Re: Fixing a working system
I can see the point of having two or three unobtrustive audio tones for calls [say one for family members and friends, one for work associates/business and another for unknown callers, thus giving an audio cue so you can decide whether to investigate further as to who it is [caller id] and decide if you are going to answer or not. However this litany of half-assed ring tones, I just don't know what to make of it. The only thing I can figure is that anyone who uses them is ever so slightly socially retarded.
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Mike (profile), 9 May 2005 @ 9:05am

Re: Fixing a working system
These aren't "ringtones" that you, the receiver hear. These are ringback tones, that the *caller* hears while waiting for the person they're calling to pick up. You know how you usually hear *ring ring* quietly... well, now you hear a song. So, the knowing whose calling stuff doesn't apply.
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