The world's first truetone

Calling ringtones inspired by a popular song now seems like a commonplace thing. Yet this format did not exist until 2002. They used melodies built into the phone by the manufacturer as a ringtone.

Things went different in Japan in December 2002, when the mobile phone manufacturer au decided to offer a new service--chaku uta--to its customers. A chaku uta is a track coded in an audio format that can be played on a cell phone. It was something different than a regular ringtone: a truetone or 'realtone'-- a real song that could be downloaded to your phone-- is what ultimately came into being. At first, chaku uta was 45 seconds long; as the Internet developed, the chaku-uta full format emerged.

The first truetone the world has heard was the song 'My Gift to You' by Chemistry. The chaku uta format of the song was made available for buying in December 2002. It was released to coincide with the Japan-wide concert tour of Chemistry in spring. This is how the market for the digital sale of cell phone songs appeared in Japan.

The chaku uta full format accounted for about 90% of all downloads of Japanese music while it was at the pinnacle of popularity. In 2009, for example, Thelma Aoyama's single 'Soba ni Iru ne' received 8.2 million downloads. In 2011, the chaku uta market fell by over 20% as Android and iPhone competitors came along. Even though the chaku uta format is slowly becoming a thing of the past in Japan, truetones and realtones still enjoy popularity.