Notices

I'm a music composer/producer looking to start publishing ringtones and alert sounds through several avenues, including the ovi store eventually.

I've already compiled the first two themed audio packs. As a measure of preparation, I'd like to get some feedback as to what you look for in mobile sounds. I want to publish sounds in packs, including ringtone, sms alert, email alert, and IM alert. All sounds come from a common source material or composition and are in MP3 format. I've just got a few questions for everybody who's interested in helping me out.

What seems to be the usual length for your ringtones? I'm trying to figure out what the best length for the ringtone would be. I'm subscribed to T-Mobile USA and I think the default time that the ringtone plays is ~24-26 seconds. I'm trying to have the ringtone fade out by the time the call stops instead of looping in an unnatural way.

How much would you be willing to pay if you actually liked all 4 components of the audio pack? I don't know if selling sounds in packs is something that is supported via ovi or any other content distribution site, but I at least want to know what the general public feels about it. I might take measures to try and sell the first couple of packs here just to raise money for the business license and publisher fees.

I really want to sell these as a pack that is just a touch above standard ringtones in quality. Oh, and I've decided to attach the first audio pack just as an example. It's the main composition "Fly By Night" interpolated into the four components I mentioned earlier. I've checked and rechecked the volume from my N900 several times so that the sound is consistent for all pieces. The volume should be comparable to the sounds already in your N900. All files are encoded in MP3 format at 320 kbps except for the ringtone. I had to further compress it to fit the file restraints on the forum's attachments. If properly distributed, the ringtone would be at a maximum bitrate of 320 kbps as well.

The SMS alert, email alert, and IM alert will be attached in one zip folder. The ringtone will be all by itself in a second one (again, size restraints).

Please let me know what you think, and enjoy!

Nice ones, good for quiet environments.
As a matter of taste, i like short notification tones, like a small beep, but i like these too
Good job dude!

Thanks! I'll keep the length of alert in mind too.

First of all, I'm probably the wrong person to answer this, as evil carriers have given me a somewhat jaded view of paying for things like ringtones. That said, I like what you're doing here, and if I like your other compositions, I wouldn't mind paying something for them (I love to support actual creators like you, but not what Big Media means by "creators" (themselves, that is)). In theory, I would say a maximum of $2.50 or so, given that the money is going to someone who put some work into something cool, and not just filling corporate pockets for a clip of the latest stupid pop song. If they included a full system sound scheme (not just the alerts), I might add another $0.50-0.75 to that. I don't mean to sound cheap, but I tend to change my themes (visual and auditory) fairly often, so unless it was something I knew I would use for a long time, I probably wouldn't pay much more.
Technically, this is all academic, as my N900 is a loaner and I don't have a cell plan for it due to a condition known as "starving-student disease", but hopefully this is useful to you.

sorry about the SSD. I've had that myself and it's no fun.

i would love to compose full system audio packs! If maemo were customizable to that point I'd definitely have some fun with it. System sounds that sounded like individual notes for the theme, or even a vocal theme pack! I feel the creative juices flowing...

I understand what you mean about the carriers though. I have no tolerance for a lack of creativity nor the lack of originality that most content stores are filled with.

Your opinions on pricing are well appreciated. Thanks.

Well, all the system sounds are in /usr/share/sounds, although I'm not sure which package they come in. I've never looked into it, but IIRC, the Debian package management system does have the capability to essentially "back up" existing files and install new ones (e.g. files you need to replace without removing the containing package); when you uninstall the new package, it replaces the originals. EDIT - found it: http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-pol...iversions.html. I believe that should do what you need to do. If you're not familiar with Debian packaging, good luck - I'm not a fan, so I won't be much help. Its only really fault is that it's rather pedantic, but that's just the nature of a package format of that complexity.

Also, I agree that short sounds are usually good, at least for low-priority or non-notification sounds. SMS and e-mail could be a bit longer, but IM, window-swoosh, and other more often-repeated sounds should probably be brief so as not to be annoying. That said, if the theme is good, don't destroy it trying to fit the sounds into a strict time duration - that's not art

I am a composer, somewhat of a tech junkie, but nowhere near knowledgable enough to know what the paragraph about programming was about. but, i am very interested in being able to customize all sound options of the interface. If anybody wants to give me a rundown or point me in the direction of some wiki info that educates me on this topic, I would definitely appreciate it.

Another thought... I would presume you're aware that Maemo 5 does not support DRM of any kind. While thinking about how much to charge, and how to sell and distribute, maybe give some creative thought to the issue of copying. While it would certainly be regrettable if people didn't pay you for your work, the truth is that some people aren't going to, and there's really no way to stop that (the Internet is the most efficient duplication and distribution mechanism ever devised, after all). So maybe think outside the box a bit - I don't have any particular suggestions, but selling ringtones for a device that doesn't require you to buy them might be a tough sell even among those who wouldn't make infringing copies of yours... however, there should be a good way to do it that works well for everyone, so give it some thought.

Just my two cents

30 seconds would be optimal for ringtones. The other alerts are perhaps good length, but the IM alert might be too long, since it's played so often.

I still really like them!

Yea, I considered shortening the IM to 2 "dings" instead of 4. I may rerelease this pack with a shortened IM when I release the 2nd pack this week.