Steve Jobs’ original conception of the iPhone ringtones was to allow users to create snippets of songs in their iTunes library. But to pull this off, Apple would’ve had to jump through all kinds of legal and copyright hoops. They would’ve had to strike usage deals with the major record labels, the major cellular companies, and the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA was in the middle of their own hoop-jumping, figuring out how to legally classify a ringtone with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.
To avoid this hullabaloo, and keep the iPhone delivery date on track, Jobs pivoted to a self-contained, highly curated, in-house construction of just 25 default ringtones. To help shepherd the iPhone’s aural vocabulary, Jobs enlisted Dr. Gerhard Lengeling, Apple’s Senior Director of Software Engineering of Musical Applications.
In Jobs’ words, Dr. Lengeling was interested in making the sometimes esoteric process of music accessible for “the rest of us,” and he was tantamount to Apple’s very accessible digital audio workstation GarageBand. Because of this focus on the general populace, Dr. Lengeling was the perfect candidate to determine sounds that split the difference between innovation and comfort.
