Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

However, as Anttila points out, the use of ringtones and screensavers and animations fall somewhere between a fashion statement and a bumper sticker.

There is a big change taking place here, says Anttila. These are their lifestyle or genre statements.

Therefore, the creative types are trying to figure out how the public will want to consume this new content, or more importantly, what they will be willing to pay for. One could, for example, subscribe to a hip-hop or R&B portal such as Urban World Wireless which provides a news service, ringtones, screensavers, and the like for urban hipsters. The Ministry of Sound, one of London's big rave clubs in the city's Elephant and Castle district, now has large rave culture portal offering an online radio station, a magazine, listings, and chat. It is also prime candidate to become a lifestyle portal.

AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music Group and AT & T are working on another possibility. They have formed a partnership to create "Warner Music" which will deliver song clips, artist information and other materials via wireless devices. Subscribers will be offered 30-second music clips, artists images, screen savers and musical ringtones, for a fee. Indeed they are not the only ones; most of the record labels are contemplating similar services, generally some type of MMS offering.

Meanwhile, similar arrangements are springing up in Europe. The Foo Fighters, for example, are promoting their new album, One by One, with and MMS service that includes a 30-second audio clips of tracks, as well as interviews with band members and images that customers can access for about 75 cents per minute. The deal was promoted through a spam message sent to 1.6 million O2 wireless customers across Europe.

Perhaps you think that you have heard it all before well, you have. There was a lot of nonsense talked about lifestyle portals and the Internet. So what's different this time? Better content. In 1996 the content available digitally was mostly rubbish. Ringtones have a limited life span too, however, music is compelling content.

Ringtones are certainly where all this media consumption starts, says Jim Griffin, CEO of Cherry Lane Digital, and a founder of Evolab, a wireless media deliver technology company. He's also testified before the US Congress on peer-to-peer computing. Audio is to the mobile device what video is to the stationary computer.