Where have all the musical ringtones gone?

Slide back in time, if you will, to the year 2007. Barack Obama was running for president. Rihanna’s “Umbrella” ruled the charts. References from the film “Ratatouille” had slipped into everyday conversation. Placing a cellphone on a table was compared to marking one’s territory. And musical ringtones resounded, marking their owners identity in public spaces.

Little more than a decade later, these sonic signifiers are being increasingly silenced. Recording Industry Association of America sales data shows that ringtones and ringbacks peaked in 2007, when their sales reached $1.1 billion. Last year, these downloads only brought in $34.2 million, a 97 percent dive. The bright, gamer-esque soundscape of polyphonic tones gave way to clips of actual songs, but now both have fallen behind the iPhone’s standard “marimba” ring.

And more often, just a buzz is heard.

The Emily Post Institute, in its advice on mobile phone etiquette, recommends that if a cell “must be on,” then it really should make no sound. That’s Annie Heckenberger’s setting of choice.

There are exceptions. Such as when she’s expecting a call. Or when she wants to watch a video on her phone. That has led to moments in meetings when everybody at the table gets to hear “Brass Monkey” by the Beastie Boys.

“It typically is an ice breaker,” said Heckenberger, a vice president at the Digitas Health ad agency. While she declined to share her exact age, she acknowledged that her ringtone selection gives her away as someone in her 40s. At first, some colleagues seem startled to hear her signature song’s bleating horns. But often there’s laughter, she says, or “someone at the table will request to let it play.”

To explain the decline of ringtones, experts have pointed to the fall of Nokia and the rise of the iPhone. Holdouts like Heckenberger say that ordinary sounds are missed opportunities.

Linwood Harris would prefer that his phone stand out in a crowded room. The 64-year-old used to have Al Pacino shouting “Say ‘hello’ to my little friend!” from “Scarface” on a loop as his ringtone, but he got tired of the screaming.