RINGING UP THE $$$ CELL-PHONE TONES ARE BIG BUSINESS.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

Remember when cell phones had only a handful of rings? Some ululated, some bleated. The more adventurous ones offered snatches of Beethoven.

Back in those proto-wireless days, one monophonic ``Ode to Joy'' triggered by an incoming call would have everyone within earshot ransacking their pockets and handbags for the guilty handset.

Not so today. Recognizing your own in the urban din is a lot easier due to the proliferation of ringtones - those little sound files you can store on your cell phone to vary the way it rings.

Small, cheap, infinitely variable, they seem perfectly designed for the gadget-toting American consumer. Since arriving in 2001, ringtones have exploded into myriad forms and functions, from rings to music to spoken word.

And people are using these sounds - which usually cost between $2 and $2.50 each - as personal signatures.

Ubiquitous, annoying to some, but just as often curiously entertaining, they tag the urban soundscape like aural graffiti, announcing a user's essence with a few bars of 50 Cent's ``Candy Shop,'' or a pop-cultural touchstone from, say, the Golden Age of radio, like this little gem: ``Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive ...''

And they are going like hotcakes.

Retail sales of ringtones are expected to top $500 million in the U.S. this year. That's up from $245 million in 2004, and $68 million in 2003, according to BMI, the performing rights organization that represents songwriters, composers and music publishers.

The numbers are impressive. But to the industry, they indicate that the U.S. still trails the rest of the world in mobile friendliness. In Europe and Asia, cell phones are more sophisticated tools, and text messaging is the preferred mode of communication - if for no other reason than it's cheaper than placing a call.

``You get into that mode of interacting with your phone and buying a ringtone ... becomes a much easier bridge to cross,'' says Richard Conlon, vice president of business development for BMI.

Here in the U.S., not all 180.5 million wireless subscribers - last year's figures - can download ringtones because they lack the right phone or carrier. But that will change as cell phones morph into receivers for video and satellite radio and gossip and who knows what else. And when it does, an industry able to tempt phone users with the latest ear candy will be there to mine the possibilities.

``We really look at the phone as its own medium,'' says Jonathan Dworkin, who heads artists and repertoire for Blingtones, touted as the world's first wireless label. The company, founded in 2004, specializes in original 30-second hip-hop tracks created by producers such as Q-Tip, D-12's Kon Artis and Hi-Tek.

From the commercial variety to gangsta rap, these mini-songs are sold through most major U.S. mobile carriers in polyphonic and master track quality, some with lyrics, some without.

``It's such an incredibly powerful distribution system,'' says Dworkin on his handset as New York City bustles in the background. ``Potentially, you're in 150 million pockets within a year or so.''

It should come as no surprise that hip hop and r&b lead the ringtones market, which, as a whole, raked in more than $4 billion worldwide last year. Urban music dominates the Billboard charts for - you guessed it - ringtones, which in turn become eligible for the trade magazine's annual awards show. But beats and rhymes are not the only sounds you'll hear. Everything from a growling Chewbacca to the band Coldplay, which made its single ``Speed of Sound'' available to Cingular Wireless subscribers in April before it was released to radio, are also popping up in the digital matrix like wildflowers alongside the 405 Freeway.

Actually, consumers are looking well beyond radio for the perfect sound file. Last year's big ringtone hits were the retro TV show themes ``Mission: Impossible'' and ``Knight Rider,'' each one tallying more than 1.5 million downloads.

``Nostalgia is in,'' says Jeffrey Dittus, CEO of MediaBay Inc., the digital media and publishing company that's in the process of converting more than 10,000 of its old-time radio programs to 20-second ringtones.

Think ``Abbott & Costello,'' ``The Jack Benny Show'' and ``Sorry Wrong Number.''

Dittus spotlights the latter show, a radio drama in which a woman who's confined to bed picks up the phone to dial her husband and instead hears two men plotting the murder of one of their wives, not realizing that she's the target.

She calls the police station and gets a recording that repeats ``sorry wrong number'' over and over again.

``As a ringtone, it is the funniest thing you've ever heard,'' Dittus says as he calls up the snippet and other examples from ``Sorry Wrong Number'' via radiospirits.com/sample/ringtones.html. These ringtones are also available through Ringtalker, which can be accessed through Verizon and Cingular, priced anywhere from $2 to $2.50.

That may seem like a lot for, say, 30 seconds of the spiritual 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot,' but every note is worth it, says Alexander U. Conrad.

``When your phone rings, you need to know it's ringing,'' says the president and chief operating officer of Dwango Wireless, a leading developer and publisher of mobile entertainment content, including ringtones for the Rolling Stone brand.

In April, Dwango announced the launch of spiritual- and religious- themed ringtones in partnership with Beliefnet, a multifaith media company the bulk of whose ringtone content is Christian music, although the company offers information across the board, from Judaism and Islam to Buddhism and other spiritual beliefs.

``It's a very viable niche market,'' Conrad says. ``Beliefnet sends out several million opted e-mails every month ... and it's a great way for those folks that obviously have an interest in a particular faith and spirituality to further express themselves with a spiritual tone on their mobile phones.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) SELF EXPRESSIONS

With more and more devices, ringtones offer a fun way to make a statement about yourself

Jon Gerung/Staff Artist

(2) no caption (cellular telephone and a microphone)

(3 -- 4) Ringtones run the gamut from the lyrics of 50 Cent to Chewbacca's growl.