Stop Paying for Ring Tones

Use any of our audio editors to create custom MP3 ring-tones (for your cell phone) easy as pie!

It's no secret that cell phones can now alert you to incoming calls with a musical ring tone. I applaud this development: Songs sound better than beeps, and they're personal.

There is a catch, however. Buying ring tones can be expensive. Online stores typically charge more to send a song snippet to your cell phone than they do to download a whole song to your PC. Ring-tone sellers tend to tout compatibility they can't back up. Even if they sell you one that works on your phone and deliver it to you successfully, you'll still have to pony up more cash every time you want to switch your ring tone. And if you buy a new phone, you may not be able to use the ring tones you've purchased and loaded onto your old one.

Record labels love it when fans buy a ring tone of a song they already own -- the industry claims $4 billion in ring-tone sales to date. But in fairness, you shouldn't have to pay separately just to hear your CD tracks or legally acquired MP3s as ring tones.

In most cases, you don't have to. Putting a snippet of a CD track or MP3 file on your phone is actually very straightforward -- not to mention free, if you already own the song. Following is a step-by-step guide.

What you need:

* Cell phone with MP3 ring-tone support
* CD or MP3 of the song
* Any method of transferring the ring tone from computer to phone (USB, Bluetooth, e-mail, instant message, etc.)
* Audio Editor that supports export to MP3. 

Instructions:

If you're creating your ring tone from a CD, rip the song you want as a MP3 file. It's a good idea to specify a new ripping location, too, so the ripped song doesn't end up lost in the rest of your music collection..

Once you have the song as a digital music file (MP3), run your audio editor and load the file.
You'll see your song laid out from left to right. Click the cursor around until you find the section you want for your ring tone. You're looking for a phrase of 15 to 17 seconds duration or so. Take a few passes at highlighting your future ring tone. Click the PLAY button to preview the selections. When you find the right one, you can export it as is -- or you can personalize the ring tone with audio effects.

Our Audio Editors all come with several effects; to try them out, leave the ring tone selected and then select anything in the Effect menu.

I recommend trying the Echo and Fade effects. Each has various settings to tweak. Adding these effects is a matter of taste, but I figure it adds a bit of spice to the ring tone and makes it more of an individual statement.

Creating a derivative work of a copyright song is technically illegal. I'm no lawyer, and this does not constitute legal advice, but I am fairly certain that one could successfully defend these highly unlikely charges on the grounds that creating -- and not distributing -- a ring tone from a legally purchased song is covered by the affirmative defense of fair use.

After you're happy with whatever effects you've decided to use (the Redo/ Undo function often comes in handy here) choose to export as MP3. 

It's time to transfer the MP3 ring tone onto your phone. The easiest way to do this is with Bluetooth, assuming you have already paired your computer and cell phone. If your phone came with a USB connection, use that; otherwise, try e-mailing or texting it as an attachment. Put the ring-tone file into the Ringtone or Audio folder if your phone has one, and then select the new ring tone in your Tools or Options menu.

Another easy way to get your customized ring-tone onto your cell phone is by using this free service...

Here's our Flash video to show you how easy it is to create a custom ringtone...