Monday, 10 Octorber 2011

Nokia has announced that an dubstep version of its classic ringtone will be deployed as the default ringtone in its forthcoming Windows Phone based handsets after an Italian DJ won a contest to design the ringtone.

Valerio Alessandro Sizzi's 24-second version of the iconic Nokia ringtone, will be preloaded on more than 100 million handsets to be shipped all over the world.

The 22-year-old audio design graduate from just outside Milan said: "I never expected my version to be so popular and to be highly rated by Nokia, but hey! Nice surprise." Valerio's modern take on the tune received 1,000 likes on his Facebook page and beat 6,200 entries to take the US$10,000 first prize.

Five runners-up each win $1,000 and their tunes will be released at the Nokia Store.

Noklia says that the ringtone competition website attracted 1.4 million visits and entries were played over 11 million times. Around hundred thousand visitors shared the tunes via Facebook and Twitter.

Valerio added: "I found out about this competition on one of my teachers' blogs and said 'why not? let's try'.

The original Nokia Tune, known as the Grande Valse was written by by Spanish classical guitarist and composer Francisco Tarrega in 1902. It made its debut in 1994 on the Nokia 2110 and was the first musical ringtone on a mobile phone and is heard worldwide an estimated 1.6 billion times a day.