Ringtone Subscriptions in iTunes
Here's a clever concept that I would never have dreamed up myself in a million years: iTunes ringtone podcasts! The idea is this: you subscribe to podcast that delivers ringtones to iTunes and allows you to sync them directly to your iPhone. I gave it a try, downloading one "episode" and sure enough it was immediately available for iPhone syncing. There aren't a lot of ringtones at this point -- just variations on the teen/mosquito high-frequency buzz -- but as a proof of concept, it's very neat indeed. Hopefully others will pick up this idea and run with it. I'm not a big ringtone aficionado personally but I know a lot of people will love this -- especially for well chosen ringtones sampled from real life.
Thanks, Klaus.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
daniel said 2:32PM on 3-24-2008
Does anyone know a site where I can get decent, nonmusical ringtones? I hate musical ringtones, but would like something different from the defaults.
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scot copeland said 3:27PM on 3-24-2008
I would ALSO love to find a good source for some non-musical ringtones. I've seen a few sources for a set of older cellular ringtones, but those were $25 - More than I want to spend.
While I understand Apple is trying to appeal to a wide audience, ringtones like the barking dog, the barely audible harp, and the cutesy old phone just don't cut the mustard.
TUAW readers, any sources you can provide?
hohum said 4:11PM on 3-24-2008
Not sure how helpful this will be, but I was looking for samples of phones ringing at the freesound project (freesound.iua.upf.edu) and a lot of the clips were tagged as being suitable for ringtones, or had descriptions that suggested the same.. You need to register for an account there to download anything but it's free and all the clips are CC licensed. So could be something to look into.
Bassir said 2:44PM on 3-24-2008
Uh, there's a much easier way to add rintgones to your iPhones.
Simply convert your ringtone to AAC via iTunes, rename the new file extension to a .m4r and open it with iTunes. iTunes immediately recognizes it as a ringtone and it's safe to be synced to your phone.
Works perfectly for me.
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Otsego_Undead said 3:25PM on 3-24-2008
Uh, yeah TUAW brought us that news quite a while back...
they're talking about non-musical ringtones that people create and then post as a podcast, no renaming neccisary. Read the post FTW.
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Dillon Doyle said 3:35PM on 3-24-2008
Well my fav ringtone source has a podcast feature. But it will only load the latest 20 ringtones or so because there are a lot of ringtones. Just click itpc://www.freeiphonerings.com/?feed=podcast or in iTunes click advanced, subscribe to podcast, and type in http://www.freeiphonerings.com/?feed=podcast. That's it!
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nakko said 3:58PM on 3-24-2008
Geez, we've been doing this for two months now at http://nakko.com . Always nice to see that others pick up your good ideas....
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Richard Garrison said 4:05PM on 3-24-2008
Here's the best idea. Don't use ringtones at all. There is nothing more irritating than listening to someone's phone belting out some annoying song over and over at maximum volume from someone's pocket and they let it ring 3 or 4 times before they answer. Seriously? What's wrong with people?
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Bassir said 4:20PM on 3-24-2008
The iPhone's speaker sucks and you'll never hear it. The only one that's aware that the ringtone is playing is the owner when his pocket vibrates.
And even those vibrations are vague. It's so easy to miss a call.
steve said 4:09PM on 3-24-2008
@ NAKKO,
Thanks man, I had a look at the site, looks great and it actually works on my iphone.
@Daniel and Scot,
These guys at NAKKO have truckloads of ringtones for your iphone and I also saw a create your own button (didn't check that one out yet) but I guess you can even upload your own and let them turn it into a ringtone.
p.s. also works on my girlfriends nokia that needs AMR format so I have to say, thumbs up for NAKKO.
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cuban321 said 4:54PM on 3-24-2008
Anyway to filter out all the musical ones? I can't find a tag to search for...
Brian W said 4:13PM on 3-24-2008
I have used GarageBand to make a few simple musical "non-musical" ringtones.
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Wiley said 6:50PM on 3-24-2008
Okay, here's something that always has bothered me. Why doesn't the iPhone come loaded with the ringtone that is used in the commercial? Anyone here happen to have it on hand?
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Francis said 7:35PM on 3-24-2008
itpc://web.mac.com/francisreal/Home/Podcast/rss.xml
here is mine. mine are mostly synth/polyphonic sounding ringtones contrived from indie songs.
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Francis said 7:46PM on 3-24-2008
WOOPS
itpc://web.mac.com/francisreal/Home/Indietones/rss.xml
changed the link
Tristan said 11:46PM on 3-24-2008
One thing that I have done on my iPhone, which makes things SOOOO much easier for me, I use GarageBand and then use Leopards 'Alex' voice (you can find scripts to go from type to audio) to add names to the beginning of the ringtone, so when you are listening to your headphones , the phone announces who is calling (you have to make 1 ringtone for every user you want this for and assign it to that contact, but it's free!)
If anyone know another way to do this via a utility, please let me know!
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Ross Barber said 8:16PM on 3-25-2008
I created a ringtone podcast over a year ago, tried to add stuff that was a little different to your usual fare. It lost it's fun when I got a polite letter threatening legal action when I used sound I ripped from a popular flash cartoon. So I stopped doing it.
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David said 11:50PM on 3-25-2008
I've tried a couple of different ringtone podcasts and each time I sync more than one custom ringtone to my iPhone all I end up with is duplicates of the first ringtone on my list. Anyone else have this happen?
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Anthony said 12:40AM on 3-26-2008
Yes, That happens to me EVERY time. It is very annoying as I can only have one ringtone.
Dale said 4:27PM on 5-04-2008
I am not sure what I am doing wrong, but the tones are in my iTunes, and show on the Device/iPhone/Ringtones and I synced all the tones, but they do not show up on my iPhone. Any ideas?
I am on iPhone software version 1.1.4
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