Your iTunes library is filled with all your favorite songs. Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn your own songs into ringtones for your iPhone? The good news is that you can turn most of your music into a ringtone. There is an easy way to do this (it costs about $1 per ringtone) and a more challenging but free way to do this. We will show you both.
The Easy Way to Create Ringtones Using iTunes
First, let’s create ringtones in iTunes using songs you have purchased from iTunes.
NOTE: You cannot use this method unless you have purchased the song from iTunes and the song itself allows ringtones to be created. Some artists prevent this feature.
Preparing iTunes to Create Ringtones
Before you can create Ringtones from the iTunes Store, you need to adjust a few settings in iTunes itself.
1. From your iTunes menu, select Edit from the menu and then choose Preferences to see the screen shown to the right.
2. Make sure Ringtones is checked and click OK.
3. Now you will notice a new Ringtones category appear under Apps in your library in the left column.
4. From your iTunes menu, select View from the menu and then choose View Options to see the screen shown to the right.
5. When you click OK, you may be asked if you would like iTunes to check which songs can be converted to ringtones. Select Check Songs from the pop-up window.
6. After iTunes checks your music library, you will notice a new column with a bell icon at the top. Only songs with a bell icon next to them can be converted into a ringtone with iTunes normal method. These are songs that have been purchased from the iTunes store.
CAUTION: There is a charge for ringtone creation.
As of press time, iTunes charges for this service, usually US $0.99 for each Ringtone created.
Creating the Ringtone in iTunes
Now you are ready to choose a song from which you will make a Ringtone.
1. Select a song that iTunes will allow you to use. These are songs that have a bell ^ icon in the new Ringtone column.
2. Highlight the song, then select Store > Create Ringtone from the menu.
3. Sign in to iTunes using the account that was used to originally purchase the song.
4. iTunes will show you the Create Ringtone page (Figure 10-12).
Figure 10-12. iTunes Create New Ringtone page.
5. The song is displayed as a sound wave along the bottom with the first 15 seconds highlighted in blue.
6. You can grab the blue highlighted section in the middle and drag it to any section of the song. You can also drag either of the corners to extend the ringtone beyond the initial 15 seconds.
7. Figure 10-13 shows a highlighted section of a particular song that is almost 30 seconds long.
Figure 10-13. Creating a Ringtone in iTunes.
8. To listen to the highlighted section, click Preview.
9. When you are satisfied with the selection, click Buy and input your iTunes password, if prompted.
10. Once your purchase the ringtone, it will appear in the ringtone list. Click on Ringtones in the left hand column of iTunes (Figure 10-14).
Figure 10-14. Viewing Ringtones in iTunes.
The Free, But More Challenging Way to Create Ring Tones
The second method for creating a Ringtone is a little trickier. It certainly helps to be technically inclined if you are going to try this method. One very good reason to give this method a try is that it is totally free. The second reason is that it will work on many more songs than the iTunes method described above.
This method will work on any music in iTunes that is not protected with DRM (Digital Rights Management) copy protection. Older iTunes purchases might contain DRM. Any music you loaded into iTunes from a CD or other non-DRM music (including newer non-DRM music from iTunes) will work.
Locating the Song to Turn into Your Custom Ringtone
First, locate the song in your iTunes library.
1. Select and highlight a song in iTunes to use as a basis for your custom ringtone.
In the iTunes menu, select File > Get info. You can also right-click the song with your mouse and choose Get info.
2. Click on the Options tab and put a check mark in the Start time and Stop Time boxes.
2. Click on the Options tab and put a check mark in the Start time and Stop Time boxes.
CAUTION: Make sure the total duration is less than 40 seconds; otherwise the ringtone will be too large.
3. Click OK to close the Get Info dialog box.
4. In iTunes, click on the Advanced menu and select Create AAC Version.
5. You should now see a new version of the song that is only a few seconds long appear in your iTunes list. Our new version of Daniel is only 0:30 long.
6. Once you have your new 30-second version, make sure you go back into the original song and uncheck the Start and Stop times via the Get Info > Options tab.
6. Once you have your new 30-second version, make sure you go back into the original song and uncheck the Start and Stop times via the Get Info > Options tab.
7. Once the new, shorter ringtone ACC version of the song is created, just drag it from iTunes to your desktop or copy and paste it onto the desktop.
9. Change the extension of the file from m4a to m4r so it will be recognized as a ringtone. Click on it to highlight the name and change it or right-click on the file and choose Get Info and then change the extension.
10. You will see a warning message that the file may be unusable. Just accept the change.
11. You must now delete the 30-second version that still is in iTunes in order to move to the next step.
12. Drag the new file with the new m4r extension back into your iTunes library and drop it there.
13. If everything went well, you should now see your ringtone listed when you click on Ringtones in the left column.
Syncing the Ringtone to Your iPhone
See the "Sync Ringtones" section of topic 3: "Sync with iTunes" to learn how to get the new ringtone onto your iPhone.
Using Your New Custom Ringtone
If you want to tie your ringtone to a particular person in your Contacts list, you will need to edit that contact. Follow the steps in the "Giving a Contact a Unique Ringtone" section in this topic.
If you want to use your new ringtone for your main phone ringtone, follow the steps in the "Sounds" section of topic 9: "Personalize and Secure Your iPhone."
