A band from Germany calling itself Super Smart have released their new "album"¹ only as ringtones. You know, those cutesy bleeping snippets that peoples' cellphones play while they scramble to answer the things?

Ringtones are much bigger in the EU than in the US. Over there, you can get any of a kajillion tunes downloaded to your mobile by any of a hundred white and grey-market companies. Most of these companies pay a reliable revenue stream to the Cartel but some get music made directly for themselves and one such has inked this deal to get Panda Babies' polyphonic bleeping without major-label involvement. Instead, the associated label is Go Fresh Mobile Music, which claims to have signed 20 artists and sold over a million ringtones in its first year.

Of course, it's mostly a publicity stunt, but there's real creation going on here, and it's generating real money that flows to artists. So more power to 'em, I say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3671061.stm

1. An increasingly ill-fitting term for a musical collection.