Italian DJ Valerio Alessandro Sizzi has won the Nokia Tune competition to create a new ringtone for the company. As well as receiving a $10,000 prize, he’ll also potentially become one of the world most listened-to music artists because his ‘Nokia Tune Dubstep Edition’ will be preloaded on more than 100 million handsets. Each of the five runners-up will win $1,000 each, with their tunes made available on the Nokia Store.
Valerio said “I made a dubstep version of the Nokia Tune because the style has become massively popular during the last two years. I just thought that a sparkling, cool version of the Nokia Tune would attract young customers.”
A panel of seven judges chose ten finalists after listening to over 6000 entries that lasted for 50 hours in total.
The original Nokia Tune, Grande Valse, was written by by Spanish classical guitarist Francisco Tarrega in 1902 but didn’t appear on a Nokia phone until making its debut in 1994. It’s now believed to be heard 1.6 billion times every day around the world.
[Nokia blog]