August 30, 2007 at 9:31 am · Authored by Ewan · Filed under Feature, Mobile Services

Fancy standing out from the crowd with a decent ringtone, rather than the standard rubbish Nokia one? Well, now you can, thanks to Voxtone.

For over two years, Voxtone founder and CEO, Nadeem Mughal, has been working on creating a service that enables users to simply and easily request their own ringtone that features professionally sampled music, together with a voiceover unique to you.

Example? Well, I’ve just ordered ‘Ewan is a Beast’ for my voiceover. When I get it, I’ll put it up here as well as stick it on my N95 as my ringtone. I’ll just need to remember to put it on silent when I’m in meetings.

I had a chat with founder Nadeem yesterday. He came across as a passionate and stand-up entrepreneur. He clearly has a passion for music — indeed, his background is in music production across the entertainment industries. Noticing the over-saturation of the ringtone market, he brought his music experience to bear setting up Voxtones to create unique ringtones for every customer.

Right now you’ve got a choice of two voice over artists — one American accent and one English accent and plans are afoot to extend this shortly.

The service has been going great guns in North America (it’s been live there for about 3 months) with the biggest user demographic (perhaps predictably) being the young working professional crowd.

Voxtones won’t record profanity — but other than that, you are limited only by your imagination. Nadeem, for example, has “Mr Mughal, you have a telephone call” as his ringtone on his Windows Mobile device. He reckons it really does feel as though you’ve got a PA everywhere you go. I am gonna definitely try that one out! Wicked!

You can pay for your order online via PayPal (£2.50) or via mobile (£4.50 cost) — and for now, you have to go online to create your order. That’s because you’ve got to fill in the form and tell them exactly what you want on your ringtone.

Voxtone are looking for resellers — do contact Nadeem if you’re interested — plus, they’re busy signing up mobile operators to add Voxtone packs (say, a pack of 10 new Voxtones each month) to the bundle options for their consumers. Standby to be able to add that to your bundle.

Voxtone are privately funded and are looking to do their first round soon.

A little bit more on the service:

VoxTone™ is a fully customisable solution for every ringtone and sound notification need.  It comprises a specially produced pre-alert sound, from a wide selection, alongside a personally requested and recorded voice message.  VoxTone™ can say anything a customer requests, such as a personal nickname, company name and any requested sentence.

Customers can design their VoxTone™ at www.voxtoneonline.co.uk which will be recorded by a professional voiceover artist and delivered within 48 hours; either directly to the recipient’s mobile phone or to their chosen email account.  Customers can use their VoxTone™ files not only with their mobile phones but also their PC/Mac, to personalise any alerts they desire. Via mobile VoxTone™ is currently available in both MP3 and WAV formats to T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, Orange and 3 customers.  Customers can also receive their VoxTone™ via email.  VoxTone™ costs £4.50 when sent directly to mobile phones or £2.50 when sent to an email address. 

Here’s the run down on how it works:

How VoxTone™ Works
•        Visit www.voxtoneonline.co.uk to begin designing your VoxTone™.
•        Real, professionally recognised voiceover operative says your requested name or sentence, no matter how difficult or uncommon it is.
•        Your requested name or sentence can be as long as 80 characters.
•        Choose from 2 different Voice Accents, British or North American, to record your VoxTone™.
•        Comes with exclusively produced pre-alert sounds to further customise your VoxTone™
•        Receive your VoxTone™ via your mobile phone or your choice of email address.
•        Pay for your VoxTone™ via your mobile phone, PayPal or using a credit card.

It’s a super concept, I love it!

I’ll publish mine shortly so you can see how it sounds!