Back in the days before polyphonic ringtones arrived – way, way back before Crazy Frog burst onto the scene – there was one ringtone that seemed to be everywhere. No matter what country you were in, no matter what phone you owned; you might have heard it at the airport, or on TV, or even far off in the distance, carried on the breeze…
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-naaaa.
Exceptionally annoying to some, delightfully familiar to others, there’s no doubt that the little ditty that came to be known as the Nokia Tune is one of the most ubiquitous and well known jingles of the last two decades. Having first been introduced in 1994, it’s since been updated numerous times (including a pseudo-futuristic version that made a slightly cheesy cameo in the 2009 movie Star Trek).
Despite all the press coverage in recent months about Nokia’s declining market share, the Nokia Tune is still heard over one billion times every day. Today, Nokia has announced a global competition to compose the next Nokia ringtone, offering a $10,000 (USD) prize for the winning entry.
To enter the competition, you’ll need to register at https://nokiatune.audiodraft.com, where visitors can also vote on their favourite entries in the contest. The five entries with the most public votes will automatically qualify for the final round, and a further five will be selected by a panel of judges; from these ten, the judges will select the top prize winner, while five runners-up will win $1000 each, and have their ringtones available to download from Nokia’s web store.
The closing date is October 2 2011, so be sure to start putting together those annoying jingles soon.