Max Richter - The Ringtone Album

These days, any music artist looking to make a dollar is licensing their songs for use as ringtones. As the ringtone industry becomes more mature, ringtones are being used in a variety of unique ways. But Max Richter, a German-born composer based in Edinburgh, is taking the ringtone to a new level. His most recent work, 24 Postcards In Full Colour, is a collection of original songs that have been recorded for use specifically as ringtones. The songs vary in length, but the average arrangement lasts 60 seconds.

On his website, Richter says:

Thinking about how we listen to music now, with the wide range of options available, I wondered why it is that the ringtone medium so far has been treated as unfit for creative music…

I have no control over how these tracks will be played back, or in what order, so they are composed as a collection of related pieces with many shared references between them - so the more of them you hear, the more they will connect.

Richter is planning to promote the collection at premiere events, where the audience’s phones will be performing the pieces in response to text messages from the composer himself.