The rise and fall of the ringtone industry and its effect on mobile entertainment, music, television, film, and politics. A decade ago, the customizable ringtone was ubiquitous. Almost any crowd of cell phone owners could produce a carillon of tinkly, beeping, synthy, musicalized ringer signals. Ringtones quickly became a multi-billion-dollar global industry and almost as quickly faded away. In The Ringtone Dialectic, Sumanth Gopinath charts the rise and fall of the ringtone economy and assesses its effect on cultural production. Gopinath describes the technical and economic structure of the ringtone industry, considering the transformation of ringtones from monophonic, single-line synthesizer files to polyphonic MIDI files to digital sound files and the concomitant change in the nature of capital and rent accumulation within the industry. He discusses sociocultural practices that seemed to wane as a result of these shifts, including ringtone labor, certain forms of musical notation and representation, and the creation of musical and artistic works quoting ringtones. Gopinath examines “declines,” “reversals,” and “revivals” of cultural forms associated with the ringtone and its changes, including the Crazy Frog fad, the use of ringtones in political movements (as in the Philippine “Gloriagate” scandal), the ringtone's narrative function in film and television (including its striking use in the films of the Chinese director Jia Zhangke), and the ringtone's relation to pop music (including possible race and class aspects of ringtone consumption). Finally, Gopinath considers the attempt to rebrand ringtones as “mobile music” and the emergence of cloud computing.

This volume examines many aspects impacting the digital divide in Latin America and the politics of digital inclusion including mobile youth identities, technology affordability, school transformation by digital media, the diffusion of e-commerce platforms and digital technology in SMEs.

In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.

In The Mobile Revolution senior executives of the world's leading mobile vendors, operators, service providers, software giants, chip kings, media and entertainment conglomerates, publishers, music moguls and brand marketers reveal their secrets and strategies. Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Qualcomm, Vodafone, Microsoft, Intel, Yahoo, New York Times, EMI, CNN, ABC, Disney, Warner Music and Universal are just a few of the names that feature. As a result, the book abounds with inside stories of great industry successes (and equally great flops!) as the narrative shifts constantly between the major cities of several continents - from Helsinki and Stockholm, London and Frankfurt, Tokyo and Seoul, Beijing and Singapore, New York City and Los Angeles, to Bangalore and Moscow. The Mobile Revolution is about the making of mobile markets and services worldwide, with a firm emphasis on innovation. Not just another account of technology innovation, it examines the rise of mobile services in the context of maturing and emerging mobile markets.

Behind the Screen unveils Nokia's phenomenal success story through people, business initiatives and products. The book explores key moments, key technologies and key managers who contributed to the company's growth to become the world's favorite mobile phone brand. In the 1990s, Nokia outrivaled the traditional telecommunications companies Motorola and Ericsson by introducing innovative products that allowed personalization and gaming, and by exploiting new technologies which created businesses that didn't exist before, such as ringtones. Once the dot-com bubble had burst and 3G licence bidding had driven the industry into a downturn, Nokia faced new competition. Microsoft challenged Nokia in software, and Samsung and LG in hardware. Yet, Nokia was thriving as the competition heated up. It wasn't enough, because the biggest disruption in mobile communications was yet to come - the Internet. After Apple introduced the iPhone, Google gave away an open-source operating system for smartphones, and Skype generated revenues from a free telephone service, it wasn't enough for Nokia just to crank out products for the vast Indian market or tailor phones for AT&T or Vodafone. The industry had changed irrevocably. Whereas people in established markets wanted to access their favorite social networking services like Facebook or Twitter using a mobile device, people in emerging markets needed their first e-mail accounts. That's where Nokia's strategic Internet service Ovi came in. Behind the Screen unfolds the stories of businesses and technologies that Nokia created and turned into global successes or into miserable failures. It might be impossible to replicate Nokia's success, but the stories offer valuable nuggets on how to thrive in global markets.

In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.

A musical composer, guitar rocker, and lyric opera singer team up to write this sensational book on songwriting. This book includes everything you want to know about the core competencies of songwriting, elements of music, and lyrics. Features include writing song lyrics, crafting musical compositions, musical styles, getting a contract, sustaining a career, publishers and agents, recording, and even how to survive in the music industry. No matter what music genre you desire---blues, country, hip hop, gospel, punk, classical, alternative, jingles, or rock---this is the book for you. You will find this fascinating book filled with tips, quotes from famous songwriters and musicians, and numerous stories on songwriting that will keep you fully engaged.