Dolby's Ringtones. You've no doubt been wondering whatever happened to Thomas Dolby since his last hit song in 1983 (She Blinded Me With Science). Among other things, he "is responsible for arranging the polyphonic version of Francisco Tarrega's "Gran Vals," better known as Nokia's ubiquitous signature ring, reports Ethan Smith in The Wall Street Journal 1/17/05). Mr. Dolby is, in fact, making quite a nice living running Retro Ringtones, retroringtones.com, a company that provides ringtones composed by "name-brand" artists to cellular carriers. These are not just old hits edited into ringtones, but original compositions, and Mr. Dolby says it's not all that different than writing pop songs. "A hook is a hook is a hook," he says.

Mr. Dolby charges his clients $500 per ringtone -- two grand if they use it and "$200,000 or more" if the tone becomes a jingle in an ad campaign. He's based in Half Moon Bay, Calif., with offices in L.A. and London, too. Joining Mr. Dolby in this fledgling category is an outfit called BlingTones, www.blingtones.com, which bills itself as "the world's first wireless record label." As Jonathan Dworkin, a company vice-president explains: "Essentially a record company is A&R, marketing, promotion and distribution ... We provide those same services." However, unlike a traditional record company, "there are no manufacturing costs, and with cellphone carrieres delivering the ringers to consumers, they incur minimal distribution costs." What's more, because such expenses normally are extracted from artist royalties, the artists are likely to make more money, more quickly than they would in a traditional record deal.

Mr. Dworkin meanwhile reports that "BlingTones' sales so far are comparable to those for the diminishing physical-singles market -- on the order of a few thousand per week." He is optimistic about the future though, because he believes the potential for buzz is built into the product itself. "Our best marketing campaign is going to be people hearing it," he says. He also expects that original ringtones will play better among teens who "want to stand out," than a bad re-hash of a well-known riff. As for Thomas Dolby -- he sounds wisened by his long-lost pop stardom: "It's a case of making hay while the sun shines," he says. Currently, ringtones is "a $2.2 billion business worldwide."

Tim Manners, editor