new iTunes - How to Add Ringtones for FREE

[Peace]

We haven't sent out the official announcement yet, but you guys have been great so... iToner 1.0.1 is available now with iTunes 7.4 compatibility goodness.

moki I LOVE some of your stuff. Truly I do.I have a paid license for some of your stuff.However with this great discovery I think you're swimming upstream bro.The method here is easy and free.
And it's been reported on Gizmodo,Engadget and now cNet.

Thanks to cleverboy.

 

[Espo]

For PC users, I know XP has this.

If you can convert your MP3 to .wav files, and then u can crop the song in Sound Recorder. Then you move that croped filed to iTunes, convert it to AAC, then convert it to m4r. Double click on the m4r, and it should show up in ur ringtones.

For those who say the volume isnt high enough, Sound recorder allows u to increase volume.

 

[moki]

moki I LOVE some of your stuff. Truly I do.I have a paid license for some of your stuff.However with this great discovery I think you're swimming upstream bro.The method here is easy and free.
And it's been reported on Gizmodo,Engadget and now cNet.

Thanks to cleverboy.

Sure, that's possible... but it's possible Apple will "fix" that method in an iTunes update as well, once AT&T and other licensees get wind of it. You never know.

iToner is quite a bit easier to do than all of this renaming, shuffling around, etc., but I will grant you that "free" is pretty tough to compete with. Plus we have other interesting plans for iToner anyway.

 

[~J~]

moki I LOVE some of your stuff. Truly I do.I have a paid license for some of your stuff.However with this great discovery I think you're swimming upstream bro.The method here is easy and free.
And it's been reported on Gizmodo,Engadget and now cNet.

Thanks to cleverboy.

But with the iTunes method, you cant use a protected file...

 

[saaber]

Sure, that's possible... but it's possible Apple will "fix" that method in an iTunes update as well, once AT&T and other licensees get wind of it. You never know.

Plus we have other interesting plans for iToner anyway.

Apple already knows about this (how can they not?) and you insinuating that you will let them know (that is what I take your smily face to mean) probably doesn't endear you or your company to your potential customers. Whose side are you on anyway? Does your company strive to make iphone owners happy (and making money while doing so is fine) or does it strive to simply make money at the expense of iphone owners' happiness? Looks like you have the wrong mission statement for your company.

 

[mistercoffee2]

This works for me.

I have struggled with this because the extension for AAC files is m4p. I believe we are talking about “Apple Lossless” files which have an extension of m4a.

Here's what worked for me on a Mac.

This only works for me on files with extension .m4a. This is not a problem because iTunes will convert any .mp3 to .m4a.

1. In iTunes/Preferences/Advanced/Importing set "Import Using:" to "Apple Lossless Encoder"

2. Right click on the mp3 song in iTunes and select "Convert Selection to Apple Lossless".

3. A new copy of the song will display in iTunes. Drag it to the desktop. Right click on the file and select "Get Info" (or use Apple i). The file extension should be m4a (if it's mp3 you did not drag the correct file to the desktop). Change the "a" to "r" and close Info box.

4. I would create a folder for these files and drag it there. Now double click the file and it will show in the iPhone “Ringtones” tab. Check it and sync.

Works great. Thanks Cleverboy

 

[moki]

Apple already knows about this (how can they not?) and you insinuating that you will let them know (that is what I take your smily face to mean) probably doesn't endear you or your company to your potential customers. Whose side are you on anyway? Does your company strive to make iphone owners happy (and making money while doing so is fine) or does it strive to simply make money at the expense of iphone owners' happiness? Looks like you have the wrong mission statement for your company.

erm... I didn't mean to insinuate anything in my posting... I think you're reading far too much into a smiley face...

I meant exactly what I stated, which is that it is highly possible this is a loophole that Apple will close once various licensees get wind of it. It's also quite possible that this behavior is unintentional, and programmers over at Apple are working furiously to close the loophole in 7.4.1. We've seen things like that happen before.

Or it's possible it'll be like the "getting music off of an iPod" situation, as others have noted before, where Apple just turns a blind eye. Only time will tell...

So again... you never know. (no smiley)

 

[Peace]

Sure, that's possible... but it's possible Apple will "fix" that method in an iTunes update as well, once AT&T and other licensees get wind of it. You never know.

iToner is quite a bit easier to do than all of this renaming, shuffling around, etc., but I will grant you that "free" is pretty tough to compete with. Plus we have other interesting plans for iToner anyway.

you're right moki.I just tried your app and it is quicker and does protected files.

However you can't make the ringtone 30 sec. or take a section from a song.

Work on that and I'll buy it

 

[moki]

you're right moki.I just tried your app and it is quicker and does protected files.

However you can't make the ringtone 30 sec. or take a section from a song.

Work on that and I'll buy it

We are indeed working on that as well (for now you can use GarageBand or other free tools to do it). *


* This smiley face should not be interpreted as anything evil or conniving.

 

[TitoC]

But with the iTunes method, you cant use a protected file...

I'm assuming you meant iToner and NOT iTunes. Or if you DID mean iTunes, you meant the "Approved" and "Authorized" method being released next week by Apple and not the method we are talking about in this thread.

Either way, I think people forget that there IS a way to convert your DRM files. If you REALLY want to convert these files, then there IS a way. I am talking about burning a CD of these songs of course. Since we are talking about Ringtones here, I am assuming you're not talking about 100 songs or so. Only a select few (unless you're a Ringtones freak of course). If this is the case, the only work around I see is to use a CD-RW type of disc where you can burn songs on it over and over again. This way, you get the songs converted that you want and can use the disc over and over again.

Just thought I would throw that over the fence in case some of you have forgotten.

 

[chinesefury]

It is ashame that this only works for phone ringtones and not for other sounds like alarms, email, sms etc. Full customization would be a key value added feature on the iphone.

Would you agree?

 

[mistercoffee2]

By "Protected" you refer to songs purchased on iTunes?

But with the iTunes method, you cant use a protected file...

Put the protected file in a DUMMY playlist, right click the playlist and chose "Burn Playlist to Disc". Be sure "iTunes/Preferences/Advanced/Burning" is set to "Audio CD". Read it back in with "iTunes/Preferences/Advanced/Importing" set to "Apple Lossless Encoder". Now drag the new file to the desktop, (or your Ringtones folder) change the file extension from m4a to m4r and double click the file to put it in iPhone/Ringtones

 

[slick316]

I got a dumb problem I hope I can get help with.

I have a ringtone that I have used on all my previous phones (CTU phone ringtone from 24), its a 3 second sound thats in MP3. I did what was suggested above.

Changed iTunes encoding to Apple Lossless, imported the 24.MP3 to iTunes, converted it to Apple Lossless, here is where the issue comes in, neither the original MP3 or the new Apple Lossless version will drag over to the desktop or anywhere for that matter.

I can take any other song, drag it to the desktop and there it is, not the two 24 ringtones though.

Any ideas?

Using a 15" MBP (the one before the newly released models), latest version of OSX, latest version of iTunes.

 

[TheBusDriver]

I can't get anymore than 6 ringtones on and I can't figure out why?

 

[Cleverboy]

Will they or Won't They...?

I meant exactly what I stated, which is that it is highly possible this is a loophole that Apple will close once various licensees get wind of it. It's also quite possible that this behavior is unintentional, and programmers over at Apple are working furiously to close the loophole in 7.4.1.
[--SNIP--]So again... you never know. (no smiley)

Personally? I'm pretty certain Apple WILL NOT be closing this as a loophole for a variety of reasons.

WHY $1.99?
Apple is selling ringtones of songs they have available in the store. They've created an easy way to do this, because otherwise there is simply no easy way to alter a song downloaded from iTunes into a 30 second ringtone without some relative inconvenience (you would need to strip the DRM off).

Like they do with everything, they've created an excellent solution for selling ringtones for a fee, they pay for that right to their partners, and its great. Now... new question... should users be able to create their OWN ringtones? YES! Go ahead...! Have fun.

THE TWO COMMANDMENTS
Here are the things I believe Apple does NOT want you to do. #1.) Thou shalt not purchase and download a song from the iTunes Store and change it into a ringtone quickly and easily for FREE (they need to pay for this right). #2.) Thou shalt not download a 30 second "preview" from the iTunes Store, and change it into a ringtones for FREE (this is an existing hack).

Those are two holes they absolutely need to plug, right away (regardless of how you do it), as they violate the nature of their agreements with content providers.

HEAPS OF GRAVY
Every OTHER method for users to generate ringtones inside or outside of iTunes is simply gravy. So, why wouldn't Apple simply add official support then? Two words come to mind: Customer Confusion. They do not officially want to encourage "free ringtones" when they're also charging for them. It would harden the line between DRM and non-DRM to the point of being unacceptable to their brand image.

My suspicion is that they're still attempting to plug some of these holes I mentioned, but otherwise, they really don't give a hoot.

WHY AMBROSIA ROCKS
BTW, Andrew... I'm a HUGE fan of EasyEnvelopes and Maelstrom. Your company is truly awesome. Until iToner adds editting I probably can't see using it now, personally, but I can see why some still would and I myself will probably buy it anyway, just to support more apps like this in the future! This was a godsend and your efforts deserve a lot of credit either way. They've certainly given me some ideas.

TO EVERYONE
Thanks for the assorted compliments, and this has been a fun day watching this story fly around the blogosphere after crapping out a post about it on my way to work this morning. Something new to blog about this weekend I guess.

Cheers,
~ CB

 

[moki]

Personally? I'm pretty certain Apple WILL NOT be closing this as a loophole for a variety of reasons.

Apple is selling ringtones of songs they have available in the store. They've created an easy way to do this, because otherwise there is simply no easy way to alter a song downloaded from iTunes into a 30 second ringtone without some relative inconvenience (you would need to strip the DRM off).

Like they do with everything, they've created an excellent solution for selling ringtones for a fee, they pay for that right to their partners, and its great. Now... new question... should users be able to create their OWN ringtones? YES! Go ahead...! Have fun.

Here are the things I believe Apple does NOT want you to do. #1.) Purchase and download a song from the iTunes Store and change it into a ringtone quickly and easily for FREE (they need to pay for this right). #2.) Download a 30 second "preview" from the iTunes Store, and change it into a ringtones for FREE (this is an existing hack). Those are two holes they absolutely need to plug, right away, as they violate the nature of their agreements with content providers.

Every OTHER method for users to generate ringtones in iTunes is simply gravy. So, why wouldn't Apple simply add official support then? Two words come to mind: Customer Confusion. They do not officially want to encourage "free ringtones" when they're also charging for them. It would harden the line between DRM and non-DRM to the point of being unacceptable to their brand image.

BTW, Andrew... I'm a HUGE fan of EasyEnvelopes and Maelstrom. You're company is awesome. Until iToner adds editting I probably can't see using it now, but I'll probably buy it anyway, just to support more apps like this in the future. This was a godsend and you deserve a lot of credit.

~ CB

You may very well be right, sir. I've given up trying to divine the ways of the mercurial beast that is Apple. They always seem to zig when you think they will zag.

Time will tell how this one plays out. Thanks for your kind words.

 

[TitoC]

I got a dumb problem I hope I can get help with.

I have a ringtone that I have used on all my previous phones (CTU phone ringtone from 24), its a 3 second sound thats in MP3. I did what was suggested above.

Changed iTunes encoding to Apple Lossless, imported the 24.MP3 to iTunes, converted it to Apple Lossless, here is where the issue comes in, neither the original MP3 or the new Apple Lossless version will drag over to the desktop or anywhere for that matter.

I can take any other song, drag it to the desktop and there it is, not the two 24 ringtones though.

Any ideas?

Using a 15" MBP (the one before the newly released models), latest version of OSX, latest version of iTunes.

Did you try right-clicking OR control-clicking the file and select "Show in Finder" as opposed to just dragging it from iTunes? This way you can actually do a Finders "Get Info" on it and find out if it is locked, has special privileges, etc. If so, you should be able to change it from there. It could be a file that resides on an Admin folder or has other types of issues for you. But with this way, you should be able to find out as much as you need to to get to your answer.

 

[chinesefury]

Now everyone can start making "Chocolate Rain" as their custom iphone ringtone!

 

[saaber]

erm... I didn't mean to insinuate anything in my posting... I think you're reading far too much into a smiley face...

I meant exactly what I stated, which is that it is highly possible this is a loophole that Apple will close once various licensees get wind of it. It's also quite possible that this behavior is unintentional, and programmers over at Apple are working furiously to close the loophole in 7.4.1. We've seen things like that happen before.

Or it's possible it'll be like the "getting music off of an iPod" situation, as others have noted before, where Apple just turns a blind eye. Only time will tell...

So again... you never know. (no smiley)

Sounds like I misinterpreted what you said. Sorry about that. Your response shows that your intenions are not to undermine a good thing at all and I appreciate that. Besides if Cleverboy says you are good people, that's good enough for me. Basically anything Cleverboy says today is right, he earned it!

 

[saintrocco]

did it

I finally did it. It works.

 

[blueskybyway]

This worked!

Figured it out! Uncheck the ringtones tab in iTunes then sync, then recheck the ringtones tab and sync! Hope that helps Ted and MacRaider!

I could see the ringtones in the ringtone tab on itunes, but it wasn't syncing. I unchecked "sync ringtones" as JW0008 suggested, and performed a sync. Then I rechecked and performed another sync and voila, it appeared on my iPhone. Thank you JW0008

 

[sethmckinney]

I have deleted some ringtones I've made and they keep showing up. Does anyone know where they are stored? I've been to the original folder -- I've searched for ".m4r" to delete them, and I can't find anything. However, they are still in the ringtones checklist in iTunes. I'm trying to get them off the iPhone sync deal in iTunes.

 

[c.greene914]

I have deleted some ringtones I've made and they keep showing up. Does anyone know where they are stored? I've been to the original folder -- I've searched for ".m4r" to delete them, and I can't find anything. However, they are still in the ringtones checklist in iTunes. I'm trying to get them off the iPhone sync deal in iTunes.

I am wondering this same thing!

 

[slick316]

Did you try right-clicking OR control-clicking the file and select "Show in Finder" as opposed to just dragging it from iTunes? This way you can actually do a Finders "Get Info" on it and find out if it is locked, has special privileges, etc. If so, you should be able to change it from there. It could be a file that resides on an Admin folder or has other types of issues for you. But with this way, you should be able to find out as much as you need to to get to your answer.

The iPhone was connected to my MBP and mounted in iTunes, once I ejected it from iTunes, the file was able to transfer to the desktop.

All is good now, finally got my CTU 24 ringtone on my iPhone, WOOHOO!!!!

 

[horn007]

Ringtone from the Apple commercials

I've always wanted that ringtone....and like many have been disappointed that it wasn't one of those included on iphone. Well, I just found it in Garageband sound effects, exported it, removed the protection in imovie, imported it into itunes and changed the extension. voila! Sounds great!!