Client: Nokia & Microsoft

Case Study: ‘Sounds of the World’ Ringtones Project - A collaboration between Nokia/ Microsoft and prestigious music schools

Throughout my career at Nokia and Microsoft, the personal highlight was undoubtedly the ‘Sounds of the World’ project. The project ran from 2013 up to 2015. This was certainly the most complex and ambitious project I have ever conceived and managed. In the previous year, I had led the successful ‘Regional Ringtones: Designed By You’ crowdsourcing competition (nominated for an 2012 Audio Branding Academy Award), but to follow that, we wanted to do something even more collaborative. We wanted to work more closely with students and provide them with opportunities for their career paths ahead.

The core concept was to collaborate with prestigious Music Schools from around the world, including the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) in London, The South African College of Music (SACM) in Cape Town, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (SCOM), the KM Music Conservatory (KMMC) in Chennai, and the Academia de Musica Fermatta in Mexico City and Guardalajara. The students were asked to create ringtones influenced by local music cultures and styles. The winning ringtones received a €1000 cash prize, with the additional benefit of having their ringtone pre-loaded onto millions of devices within a specific region.

I would need to put everything into making this project a success. I led the project management, from the early beginnings of the idea, through to the one week spent at each school, all the way up to the PR releases that would conclude the project.

Some of the key overall responsibilities were as follows:

• Arranging the contracts / taking care of all legal matters

• Creating design briefs, arranging translations

• Setting up separate projects with each individual Music School

• Arranging the on-site week at each Music School (travel arrangements, scheduling seminars and tutorials, promoting activities)

• Reviewing & providing feedback for the student submissions (each project ran for 4 weeks including 1 week on-site - averaging over 100 submissions per school)

• Selecting the winning ringtone submissions -> working with the students to ensure they meet the required quality standards

• Arranging the €1000 prize for each winning submission

• Optimising & mastering the final winning ringtones (ready for device use)

• Presenting the results of the project both internally and externally (including at the Buma Music In Motion 2015 conference)

• Arranging official Press Releases with Communications Team

The project was an overwhelming success. We hit the grand target of 25 ringtones, which were all of a good standard and importantly all locally relevant. All 25 ringtones were later user tested within each region with positive results.

It was an incredible experience for me personally. I got to travel to some amazing places and spend time with incredibly talented music students. I sincerely hope that the project provided a good springboard for their future careers.

Below are some shortened mixes from each of the locations. We selected 5 ringtones from each music school, with those ringtones going to a specific localized ringtone package (e.g. the Shanghai Conservatory of Music ringtones would be pre-loaded onto all Nokia devices sold in China). The ringtones created by SOAS in London would be used globally as they were not targeted to a specific region/market.

Below I’ve gathered a small collection of photos from the project. Photos 1 - 4 were arranged by local Nokia Communications Team, and photos 15 - 17 were arranged by Academia de Musica Fermatta. All other photos by me.