A Japanese user recently shared a curious piece of trivia on X／Social Media: insert 10 yen into a public phone and press “33699632” to hear Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
Even better, hanging up returns the 10-yen coin, effectively giving you a free musical performance. The post quickly sparked curiosity, with plenty of users trying the trick for themselves.
The user behind the viral post, Takahashi, said the fun fact had suddenly popped back into mind and shared the instructions. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 should be familiar to most listeners—it is, of course, the symphony featuring the iconic “Ode to Joy.”
Other users soon chimed in. Some confirmed that they could indeed hear the melody, while others initially assumed it was some kind of special audio service built into public phones.
But the seemingly magical feature is much simpler than it sounds. As users pointed out, the so-called Symphony No. 9 is actually created by the keypad tones produced when the numbers are pressed. Played in that particular sequence, the tones form a recognizable melody. In other words, there is no need to place a call at all—the “performance” comes entirely from pressing the buttons.
The trick is not limited to public phones, either. It also works on smartphones: simply open the phone dialer, enter the same sequence without placing the call, and listen to the keypad tones play the melody. One user confirmed that the trick worked on an iPhone as well. Longer tunes are also possible, provided you know the right sequence of keypad tones.
The conversation also unlocked a wave of telephone nostalgia. Users recalled old services that let callers dial specific numbers to hear songs or recorded messages, including “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and even a woman’s voice saying “Honey Pie.” Whether any of those services still exist today is another question.
So no, it is not quite an urban legend—just a clever melody hidden in a sequence of keypad tones. Still, the discovery brought back plenty of memories of old telephone audio services. Maybe it is time for someone to turn those beeps into a full-blown keypad concert.