New Yorker offers up history of ringtones

Leave it to The New Yorker, home of long, thoughtful essays on everything from the Iraq war to the work of Hayao Miyazaki, to deconstruct that ubiquitous sonic presence in 21st century life, the cellphone
ringtone. Not surprisingly,
Harmonium, the first program developed to create polyphonic ringtones, was developed by a Finnish programmer. What may be more surprising is the size of the ringtone market: a whopping $4 billion in 2004. In true New Yorker fashion, the article looks at the ringtone business, tone junkies — one guy claims to spend $10 a month on tones, mostly of Led Zep songs —  and the evolution of the technology, which is poised to take the wind out of that $4 billion market,
since it's getting easier to make your own ringtones. Jimmy Page better grab those royalties while he can.