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Paul Stringer from Kisky Netmedia informed me on his Freeloader project he developed with Katie Lips. “When you pay for a ringtone, you are essentially paying for someone to make a very simple file available to you – to send it to you, or to put is somewhere where you can get it via your phone. Many people pay a lot for this privilege; a whole industry is built on this model. Freeloader, as with other of Kisky’s projects challenges the mobile industry.”

Freeloader blows away the misconception that to put content onto your phone requires a premium rate service. It also demonstrates just how easy it is to create tones from MIDI content giving you access to everything from Bach to the theme from Nintendo’s Yoshi Island just by using a Google search. If you don’t have a data cable or Bluetooth, or know how to host a WAP site you have no choice but to pay someone to deliver your ringtone file to your phone for you.

“Freeloader is easy to use and creates opportunities for people to experiment; to create. It is designed to be easy to share your content with other users; and builds on the principle that anyone can make, upload, convert and download original mobile audio. Its contributors become the artists.”

Freeloader was commissioned by the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, UK as part of the Collaboration Programme. Originally conceived and designed by Kisky, the service was used in schools with pupils creating original audio and MIDI files lead by sound artists.