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. He also wrote ringtones for Nokia during Beatnik's deal with the company, and later founded a company named Retro Ringtones.

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 and movies, 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. He was contracted to compose music for WebTV during 1995-96, and also contributed some tracks to the Headspace Music Library.

After the dot-com bubble, Beatnik's main client was Nokia. He assembled a team of composers to write ringtones for Nokia (which is known to include Brian Salter and Steve Horner); while he wanted the company to utilize the RMF format, Nokia were not interested due to it being a proprietary format. He confirmed he wrote some ringtones for Nokia, although it is unknown if any of these were used. Many publications often erroneously state that he created the polyphonic version of Nokia tune himself, but he has denied this and Ian Livingstone has confirmed himself as its arranger.

Dolby, along with his team, were unhappy with the sound quality of Nokia phones of the time, and hoped phones would eventually use RMF or truetone ringtones. He 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 later in the year. This offered hundreds of polyphonic and audio ringtones for commercial use, in various formats such as MIDI, RMF and Yamaha SMAF. While he wrote hundreds of them, many of them were created by other composers (including production partner Kevin Wooding) or licensed from elsewhere. In late 2003, the company produced 40 ringtones named Animal Ringtones for Orange, consisting of animal noise recordings. Donations were sent to WSPA each time one of these ringtones was purchased. In 2005, the company announced plans to launch their library to US carriers.

Subsequently, the company started "undergoing a change of ownership" and by the end of August the URL became a domain parking page. It is uncertain if there were attempts to sell the business, or if the statement was just a coverup. 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, the company was later suspended. Following the end of Retro Ringtones' business, Dolby moved back to England in 2006 and returned to his music career, and has not been involved with ringtones ever since.

Music tracks

 * Adelie Deflowered — Music (with Mitchel Foreman) & Arrangement
 * Algarve — Music & Arrangement
 * Entretiens(Debussy) — 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