Make a Free Ringtone for Your iPhone

You don't need to buy them if you have the song. Ringtones for the iPhone can be no longer than 30 seconds. This procedure was done on a MacBook Pro with OS X version 10.5.8.

1. Open iTunes.


2. Choose a song.


3. Find 30 seconds of the song that you want to use as a ringtone.
   
   For example, I want to use 2:11 through 2:41 of 6060-842 by the B-52s. (You can also choose a short song; I also made a ringtone from the 20 second I Love Lucy Theme.)


4. Select the song you've chosen.


5. Right click the selected song and choose Get Info from the drop down box.


6. Click the Options tab.


7. Put a check in the boxes beside Start Time and Stop Time, enter the times you selected for the ringtone and click OK.
   
   For example, I used 2:11 for the Start Time and 2:41 for the Stop Time.


8. Choose Create AAC Version from the Advanced drop down menu.
   The new, 30 second AAC version of the song appears below the original.


9. From the Finder, search the song name in your iTunes folder.
   
   You are not searching in the iTunes application; you are searching the iTunes music folder on your computer's hard drive. Two files are displayed; you will be working with the one that has the smaller file size.


10. Copy and paste the 30 second file to your desktop.


11. Back in the iTunes application, delete the 30 second AAC version of the song.


12. Double click the name of the 30 second AAC version of the song on your Desktop to rename it.


13. Change the extension to m4r and press Return to save the change.
    
    My file had m4a as the extension so I changed the a to an r. A prompt will be displayed asking if you are sure you want to do this. You're sure.


14. Back in iTunes, right click the original song and choose Get Info from the drop down box.


15. Click the Options tab.


16. Remove the checks from the Start Time and Stop Time boxes and click OK.
    
    If you open Get Info again you will see that the times have reverted back to the song's actual length.


17. Click your Ringtones library on the left to open it.


18. Drag the .m4r file from your desktop to your Ringtones library in iTunes.


19. Sync your iPhone using iTunes.

To start using your new FREE ringtone on your iPhone just select it (Settings -> Sounds -> Ringtones) and wait for your next call.

Your number's been disconnected.
Your number's been disconnected.
Your number's been disconnected.

---