[abcusers] mobile phones as a commercial opportunity
I've just found out, via uk.media.radio.archers, of all places, that mobile phones use MIDI for their ringtones. (I'd assumed they had some proprietary format). Some phones use simple MIDI, others can handle polyphonic stuff. In the UK at least, downloading ringtones is a HUGE business. Typically they go for 1.50 UKP a time. The way it works is that the owner of the rights to the tune (typically a pop song) licences it to the ringtone site for this. I am not sure how the download is managed, presumably a phone call using some TFTP-like protocol with the billing managed by the phone network provider. (I expect Nokia et al have the information easily accessible). Most British tabloid newspapers have a *full page* of adverts for mobile ringtones and screen images in every issue; that means the download services are making enough to spend tens of thousands of pounds a day on advertising. This could be an opportunity to funnel quite a lot of dosh into the ABC user and developer communities, for tunes coded in ABC and then transformed into MIDI. But a site that provided such a service would have to be professional about it: - the rights would have to be absolutely clear. On this one, the owners WILL come down like a ton of bricks on anyone dodging copyright; they already know this is a source of income. (And for any large site, there will be mistakes - these have to be prepared for, the admin WILL get demands from the likes of ASCAP and MCPS, which will sometimes be justified, and must be able to respond, often with a cheque). - the ABC would have to be coded correctly. Mere staff-notation quality won't hack it: mismatch the anacruses between sections or get the tempo wrong and the result will sound unusably silly. Simply funnelling the Tune Finder into such a service would lead to some very angry customers: a user of ABC source can fix or ignore those problems, a mobile phone user can't. - the MIDIfier would have to be correct. That probably means ABCMus is the only option; BarFly can't be made to run in a batch/scripted mode and abc2midi is just plain wrong too much of the time. (ABCMus can do polyphonic stuff, can't it? - even if not yet, chord playing would be a good start). What it would take is a combination of (1) Toby's proposed archive (2) a validation mechanism to weed out unMIDIfiable ABC (3) a conversion interface like that used by concertina.net (4) download/billing links to the mobile phone networks (5) a media law consultant. Can we pull that off? - Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack * food intolerance data recipes, Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files, and my CD-ROM Embro, Embro. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] mobile phones as a commercial opportunity
On Fri, Mar 21, 2003 at 11:32:18AM +, Jack Campin wrote: I've just found out, via uk.media.radio.archers, of all places, that mobile phones use MIDI for their ringtones. Some do, particularly the most recent phones. Older models may use a format called RTX or RTTTL. I am not sure how the download is managed, presumably a phone call using some TFTP-like protocol with the billing managed by the phone network provider. It's usually either by the customer calling a premium-rate phone number, or sending a premium-rate SMS message, which captures their phone number. The ringtone is sent to the phone using a mechanism called OTA (over the air) which is a special type of SMS. The company I work for does some work with these things. I've been planning to write an ABC-to-RTX converter for a while, but not got round to it yet. There is some information at http://www.biff.org.uk/dave/software/abc2rtx which might be of interest. It'd be neat to have it able to send the ringtone by SMS too. :) of the time. (ABCMus can do polyphonic stuff, can't it? - even if not yet, chord playing would be a good start). ISTR that not all MIDI-capable phones are polyphonic... (4) download/billing links to the mobile phone networks That'll be fun. The up-front charges for handling premium and/or bulk SMS aren't cheap. Cheers, Dave To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] mobile phones as a commercial opportunity
See http://ringtonetools.mikekohn.net/ -- Ed Skinner, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.flat5.net/ To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] mobile phones as a commercial opportunity
On Friday 21 March 2003 09:13, Ed Skinner wrote: See http://ringtonetools.mikekohn.net/ Here's a blow-by-blow set of steps for Linux users. (Windows folks will need to download and run the Windows version of the software but the changes should be trivial.) I did this with a Nokia 8265 on 21 March 2003 and it works fine. If you have a different model cellular telephone, see the notes at the website below. Surf to http://ringtonetools.mikekohn.net/ At the left, click on Java/PHP logo/ringtone Once there, click on Java Ringtones Read the instructions to create (and edit) the ringtones Set the songname to something brief (appears later as ringtone name) Set the tempo Set the style Click Get RTX Copy the displayed RTX Paste the RTX into a local text file such as flint.rtx Surf to http://ringtonetools.mikekohn.net/ (same place) At the left, click on Download Linux Only: get LATEST SOURCE (date) (e.g., ringtonetools-2.11.tar.gz) Windows Only: I don't know. Your steps from here on may be different. Linux Only: Make a new directory and cd into it tar xzvf ringtonetools-2.11.tar.gz (or whatever file was downloaded) cd ringtonetools-2.11 (or whatever) make su (become root) make install exit (revert to normal user) Convert to Nokia's format In a Linux shell (or a Windows Command window) ringtonetools flint.rtx flint.nokia Surf to http://www.mobile.att.net/messagecenter/ Cut and paste the flint.nokia file as the message to be sent Fill-in other blanks as appropriate Send the message On the cellular telephone Phone should indicate something has happened The display should say Ringtone received Push the appropriate buttons to save the ringtone (uses the name set above) Push the appropriate buttons to select it as the current ringtone From some other telephone Dial the cell. phone to verify the new ringtone has been activated -- Ed Skinner, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.flat5.net/ To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] mobile phones as a commercial opportunity
I knew it was just a matter-of-time after I opened up the list subscription that some bozo would sign onto the list and spam everyone.. My apologies. I'll unsub this address right away. Toby See http://ringtonetools.mikekohn.net/ -- Ed Skinner, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.flat5.net/ To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html -- Toby Rider ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) - Some of those parts were totally rubbish, because when you think you're playing well when you're drunk, you're actually playing like an idiot. - Robert Smith Toby Rider's Understated Homepage: http://www.blackmill.net/toby_rider/ To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] mobile phones as a commercial opportunity
Whoops, disregard that last message.. I get about 450-500 email messages per day, I've gotten very good at deleting messages based on subject lines that look even slightly spamish, and I am sensitive to protecting all the lists from spammers. Sorry about that Ed. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] mobile phones as a commercial opportunity
In message [EMAIL PROTECTED], Toby Rider [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes I knew it was just a matter-of-time after I opened up the list subscription that some bozo would sign onto the list and spam everyone.. My apologies. I'll unsub this address right away. Toby See http://ringtonetools.mikekohn.net/ -- Ed Skinner, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.flat5.net/ To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html Er, I don't think you've been following the discussion quite closely enough Toby ... alright it's moved on from the strictly abc-related, but if you look at Jack's post of 21 March 2003 11:32:18 you'll see it's (a) still in the conversation and (b) much more on-topic than the monthly my-OS-is-better-than-your-OS crap we get on here :-) -- Steve Mansfield [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.lesession.co.uk - abc music notation tutorial, the uk.music.folk newsgroup FAQ, and other goodies To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] mobile phones as a commercial opportunity
Apology accepted. Thank you. On Friday 21 March 2003 11:23, Toby Rider wrote: Whoops, disregard that last message.. I get about 450-500 email messages per day, I've gotten very good at deleting messages based on subject lines that look even slightly spamish, and I am sensitive to protecting all the lists from spammers. Sorry about that Ed. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html -- Ed Skinner, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.flat5.net/ To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
