The main difference between Polyphonic, Monophonic and Real tones is how the sound is played:

• Polyphonic: Several numbers of notes can play at the same time. Formats: MIDI, SP-MIDI, SMAF (without PCM samples), Sagem Poly, CMX (without PCM samples).
• Monophonic: At any given point of time only one event (note or pause) is active. Formats: RTTTL, Nokia Smart Messaging, Sagem Mono, Motorola Proprietary, IMelody, emelody.
• PCM ringtones (also known as true tones, master tones, voice tones, real tones): Contain actual sound in the original audio wave form. PCM tones can contain much more information than note-based ringtones but PCM files are bigger than note-based files. Formats: MP3, AMR, QCP, AAC, SMAF (PCM-only), CMX (PCM-only), WAVE.
• RTTTL/Nokring (Ringtone Text Transfer Language): This is a monophonic ringtone format developed by Nokia to be used to transfer mobile phone ringtones. What makes RTTTL unique is that it can be sent as an SMS and will be recognised by the phone (Mostly Nokia phones, but also some Siemens models) as a ringtone. Most other ringtone formats mentioned above can only be downloaded via WAP. For more info, see Nokia Specific and WAP Delivery.

To be able to sell ringtones, you have three options available:

• Buy the content from a third party supplier:
• www.mobilefun.co.za
• www.unwiredtec.com
• Convert the content using a converter tool:
• www.ringtonecreator.info
• www.ringtone-converters.com
• www.ringtone4me.com
• Compose your own ringtones:
• Mobile Music Polyphonic
• RingtoneEditor