Thomas Dolby

Thomas Dolby is a musician and the founder of Beatnik (previously Headspace) Inc., which created technologies such as miniBAE and mobileBAE. He founded the company in 1993 and served as the CEO, but stepped down in 2002 but remained on the board. Beatnik developed the RMF format, used to play music on websites after downloading a plug-in. He wrote some tracks for the Headspace Music Library, consisting of RMF music.

Outside of his Beatnik work, he has had a long music career. He is best known for his new wave music in the 1980s, including hits such as "She Blinded Me with Science" and "Hyperactive!", both of which later received RMF versions. He has also composed for several video games, some of which were done through Beatnik when it was known as Headspace.

Work with Beatnik
Dolby founded Beatnik in 1993, under the name Headspace.

After the dot-com bubble, Beatnik's main client was Nokia. He claims to have written some ringtones for Nokia, but it is uncertain if they were used, as the majority of early Nokia polyphonic ringtones were either written by Mikko Tillander or arranged from their monophonic originals by Ian Livingstone. He also claims that "[his] team" programmed the Nokia tune, meaning that Livingstone either worked face-to-face with Beatnik or he is just misremembering. Many publications often erroneously state that he created this version himself, but he has denied this.

Dolby stepped down from his CEO position at Beatnik in early 2002, but remained on the board. He would go on to host several ringtone composing seminars, where he provided lessons to professional musicians on how to write ringtones with miniBAE, as well as differences between various handsets and potential copyright issues.

Work with Retro Ringtones
Following Dolby's departure from Beatnik, he went on to found a company called Retro Ringtones LLC. This offered hundreds of polyphonic and audio ringtones for commercial use. While he wrote hundreds of them, many of them were created by other composers or licensed from elsewhere. In 2005, the company announced plans to launch their library to US carriers by July. However, by August the company started "undergoing a change of ownership" and by October the URL had become a domain parking page. The company did not formally dissolve, but rather appears to have been quietly abandoned; while a Secretary of State "no change" form was filed in 2010, none were filed after that and it ended up becoming suspended. Following the abandonment of Retro Ringtones, Dolby moved back to England in 2006 and returned to his music career.

Music tracks

 * Adelie Deflowered — Music (with Mitchel Foreman) & Arrangement
 * Algarve — Music & Arrangement
 * Entretiens(Debussy)>ref name="Metadata"/> — Arrangement (with Dan and Free)
 * Homage — Music & Arrangement
 * Hyperactive! — Music & Re-arrangement [NOTE: An RMF version of the song of the same name]
 * Lost In The Greek Islands — Music & Arrangement
 * Moss Beach — Music & Arrangement
 * Parisian Cafe — Music & Arrangement
 * Pavane — Arrangement (with Dan and Free)
 * She Blinded Me with Science — Music & Re-arrangement [NOTE: An RMF version of the song of the same name]
 * Sicilian Love Affair — Music & Arrangement
 * Sunlane — Music (with Brian Salter) & Arrangement (with Brian Salter)
 * Tavarua — Music & Arrangement
 * Trinidad — Music & Arrangement
 * Valley of the Mind's Eye — Music & Re-arrangement [NOTE: An RMF version of the song of the same name; also known as Valleys]

UI sounds

 * Fanfare-Mars — Music & Arrangement
 * Tell Me About Your Childhood — Voice