Political Ring Tones

The protest songs of the mobile age, political ring tones have become an effective method to deliver a political message. A short statement from a politician or public figure, the ring tone reminds all who hears of a famous quote or misquote.

They are easy to create and distribute. If the ring tone goes viral it can be very influential. In the Philippines 2005 the opponents of President Gloria Arroyo turned a censored recording into a ring tone that for a short while became the most downloaded tone in the world.

In recent US elections ring tones showing both positive and negative quotes from candidates were created.

Creating a political ring tone

Sample
Most statements by politicians are in the public domain. Or if they are under copyright, then using short extracts for political purposes could be claimed as “fair comment”.

If you can not find an audio file look on Youtube. Use Listen to Youtube to convert the sound track to an mp3 file.

Edit
One you have the basic file it can be edited or merged with other samples to give the ring tone. A sample chosen for humorous effects can be very effective.

Audacity is free to download and use audio editing software. This should provided all the functionality required to create your ring tone.

Save
In order to export the finished ring tone as an mp3 file from Audacity, you will need to download and install the LAME MP3 encoder. Full instructions can be found here.

Distribute
In many countries ring tones can be sent to your friends using MMS messages. They can be sent as email attachments. Then anyone able to move files from a PC to their phone or access their email from their phone can then move the ring tone onto their phone.

Additionally, the ring tones can be uploaded to free ring tone sharing site such as Phonezoo. There is a short wait whilst Phonezoo check the ring one does not breach copy right. This takes up to 48 hours.