Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Odds and ends, Freeware, iTunes, iPhone
Creating a ringtone using only iTunes
Remember the days when getting a ringtone up on the iPhone was about as hard as, say, fixing the economy? There were all kinds of programs you had to mess around with, and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, and most of the time, it just wasn't worth the trouble. Cut ahead a year from those days of yore to right now, and look at this -- all you need to get a ringtone of almost any song you want is iTunes itself.
If you want to do anything more fancy, you'll need GarageBand (and you've got it anyway, so follow Steven's guide if you'd rather do that), but as CNET shows, iTunes will let you choose the start and stop times of a song, and converting to AAC from mp3 will let you cut it down to just those times. Pull it out of iTunes, rename the extension, drag it back into iTunes (making sure to delete the version that's already in there), and voila, custom ringtone.
Note, however, that it doesn't work for music with DRM on it, but it does work for music you rip from a CD. One favor to ask, though: don't really put Young Jeezy on your ringtone -- those 'tones are obnoxious. How about a little Miles Davis instead?
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jonnoy said 5:56PM on 10-06-2008
I'm amazed this has only just been realized, i've been doing this for ages!
Reply
jeremy said 6:05PM on 10-06-2008
Ditto.
eric said 5:26AM on 10-07-2008
im surprised as well; i thought this was the only way it could be done ever since they let us make ringtones
(01) said 10:07AM on 10-07-2008
Yeah, I'm not sure how this is "new" information, I've been rocking this since 1.1.4. Ah, well, at least people may stop bitching about how difficult it is to put custom ringtones on their phone.
Raymond Camden said 6:02PM on 10-06-2008
A quick tip. If you import to MP3, you won't see the menu item to convert to AAC. I changed my settings and was able to convert to AAC. Unfortunately, when I drag to my desktop, nothing is copied. No error, but no file. It's like it is locked in itunes.
Reply
jeremy said 6:07PM on 10-06-2008
Try "Open File Location."
Niki said 12:45AM on 10-07-2008
Well I have the same issue with the MP3's and MPEG's and can't seem to figure out how to get the "Convert to AAC" option to show up. You said you changed it in your settings, but I can't find that. Where and how do I go about it?
I thought I could outsmart iTunes (haha...) by just finding a file that was already AAC and shortening the time, copying to my desktop, rename... but it wouldn't add it into my iTunes after all that either. I don't know what seems to be the problem.
Stephen Lang said 11:49AM on 10-07-2008
Are you dragging a song or an album? I find that you can drag songs (or multiple selected songs) to Finder, but not albums.
Arto said 6:24PM on 10-06-2008
lol i've been doing it this way for a pretty long time also.
Reply
matthew said 6:43PM on 10-06-2008
This was also on Pop Siren in July:
http://revision3.com/psbite/2008-07-30ipod/
Reply
Nick said 6:35PM on 10-06-2008
ahhhhh...... My itunes 8 does not have a create aac file option in the advanced bar, it has a create mp3 option instead..... WHAT DO I DO!!
Reply
Nick said 6:36PM on 10-06-2008
Just saw the info above.... my bad
Danny said 6:59PM on 10-06-2008
What kind of iPhone case is he using at the end of the video?
Reply
deez said 1:20AM on 10-07-2008
It's more than likely that he is using an Incase brand case. Known as the slider case but I really could not make out the slots on each side.
http://www.goincase.com/products/detail/slider-case-cl59056/1
Matthew Heidenreich said 7:11PM on 10-06-2008
you guys didn't know this already? :) The video was put together very well, and they did a great job showing it in action...kudos Cnet
http://idotutorials.com
Reply
Balls said 7:22PM on 10-06-2008
Amazing song; not sure how well it works as a ring tone.
This is mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnNYXgV7L-c
Reply
Mac said 8:02PM on 10-06-2008
Okay, I had tried to create a ring tone using the GarageBand method (which I've used before on what I thought was iTunes store DRM'd material) and I get an error that says "You cannot import a rights protected AAC Audio file".
Is this new with iTunes 8.0.1? Anyone know a way around this?
Reply
DJContagious said 11:54PM on 10-06-2008
i still use audiko.net
its the best for choosing from a database of ringtones, AND making your own, letting it be pretty long and with effects such as fade and on-point start times and stop times.
GO TO AUDIKO.NET IF YOU WANT TO GET/MAKE A RINGTONE THE EASIEST!
Reply
Jan said 10:51PM on 10-06-2008
You don't even need GarageBand with this method; just iTunes and, well, that's it! Enjoy:
http://brandonblattner.com/2008/07/14/put-custom-ringtones-on-your-iphone-3gfor-free/
Reply
Jash Sayani said 11:17PM on 10-06-2008
Used to use GarageBand......
Reply