Knowing them, and knowing us, neither Abba nor their earlier fans could have imagined in their vinyl heyday that the group would end up making money, money, money by selling Ring, Ring and other songs from their seminal catalogue as downloadable ringtones. But there’s no predicting the outcomes of pop culture’s epic romance with technology.

Abba have, in fact, been slow to exploit the fashion for broadcasting your taste in music every time someone calls you on your mobile. This is not because Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus were unaware. Rather, with characteristic caution, they have been waiting until a deal came along that would guarantee e-disciples real (“polyphonic”) ringtones instead of crudely synthesized ones.

Or so they say. As it happens, the resulting arrangement will also earn Benny and Björn untold millions while giving fans a whole new way to take a chance on a man after midnight. The only losers will be callers. They will surely will find themselves waiting longer than ever for a response, as the sheer more-ishness of Sweden’s signature sound compels downloaders to sway along to whole tracks before answering.

It may be the risk of such aural overload that has persuaded the Arctic Monkeys not to sell their songs to mobile-users — despite clamorous demand and the observation on their latest album that “There's only music, so that there's new ringtones”. The Prime Minister, formerly of the Ugly Rumours, has faced no such clamour; only requests from his switchboard to make clear that “ring Tone” is not an instruction.