How-to Get Free Ringtones (No Jailbreaking Required)

Posted by Adam Blair on: June 21st, 2009, 4.00 am

ringtonefree

When the iPhone came out, tons of people were furious that you could only use the pre-installed ringtones. Then, Apple appeased them by allowing you to create your own ringtones, yet some remained outraged at the $1.98 price tag for a short ringtone. No, it’s not that much, but getting free ringtones doesn’t hurt anybody, does it?

Now, anyone can get free ringtones for their iPhone, but, chances are, those who have jailbroken their phones are the only ones that are gutsy (or maybe its foolish) enough to do it. It is so simple that a 4-year old child could do it (somebody get me a 4-year old child!). Follow these simple steps to convert any sound file on your computer into a ringtone on your iPhone—for free! Keep in mind that no programming skills are required; in fact, your phone doesn’t even need to be jailbroken in order to do this. Without further ado, here’s how to get your free iPhone ringtones:

Step 1

audikoscreenshot

There are tons of websites out there offering free iPhone ringtones, but I have only found one that offers great quality ringtones, allows you to select your own sound files for ringtone conversion, doesn’t toss malicious viruses in with your downloads, and is incredibly simple. The website is audiko.net. Here is the step one: go to audiko.net.

Step 2

You can either search their existing ringtones for your song, or, what I prefer, is you can upload your own audio files for ringtone conversion. If you want to search for a ringtone, enter your query into the search box toward the bottom of the screen, select your desired tone, then jump to Step 4 for further instruction.

selectmusicfile

If you want to upload your own audio files, you are at the right step. Select “Upload” from the home page, and navigate to your desired audio file and select it. The ringtone that I am making today is “My Freeze Ray” by Neil Patrick Harris from the best web show of all time: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Anyways, select your audio file and hit “Open”. Once it’s done loading, you will see a screen like this:

editsong

Just drag either end of the dark blue slider to the beginning and end of your ringtone. You can even fade in and/or fade out! Also, it lets you know where the iPhone will cut off the ringtone so that you can cut it accordingly. When you like ringtone enough to hear it hundreds of times around your peers, click on the “Create ringtone!” button.

Step 3

entersonginfoforotherstosearch

Next, you’ll be greeted by the above page. This is the information that will be attached to the ringtone. It isn’t neccessary, but iTunes will display the information when the ringtone goes in there, and it allows for others to search the ringtone you just created. Enter this information for your specific audio file.

Step 4

selectdownloadforiphoneiteveninsertsalbumart

As you can see, it may even know the album art for your ringtone. Select “Download ringtone for iPhone”. Then you’ll get a pop-up of the following image:

selectopenwithitunes

Open it in iTunes (it should be the default), and then, since Audiko does fancy computer work, iTunes thinks that your ringtone is acceptable for your iPhone. Silly iTunes.

asyoucanseeitopensinitunesimmediatleyreadyforsyncing

Now, you’re just about done. The rest of this just shows you how to sync a ringtone to your phone in case you don’t know how to:

Step 5

Plug in your iPhone and select the “Ringtones” tab in iTunes at the top of the screen, and then check the ringtone you have just added to your library using Audiko. Then, just sync and you’re done!

selectinringtonefolderandsync

And that is how you convert one of your own audio files into a ringtone for the iPhone–for free! Like I said before, you don’t need to have a jailbroken phone to do this, but it’s only hackers that usually take advantage of things like this. Enjoy your free ringtones!

About Adam Blair

11 Comments

  1. There is a way to do it without the internet

    First requires DRM Free iTunes or MP3 from some other source.

    1. Right Click on the song and go to the Get Info selection

    2. From the OPTIONS TAB Set the start and end times where you want the track to play for your ring tone.

    3. Exit and right click again selecting CONVERT AAC VERSION.

    4. Once complete go to the file’s direct location on the hard drive and chance the file extension to .m4r (iTunes tag for ringtones).

    5. Import into iTunes.

    • There is a rule when creating ringtones through AAC conversion, the ringtone actually can only be a maximum of 40 seconds (It can be made longer and show up as a ringtone but the iPhone wont allow it)

  2. Or just download the iRinger Ringtone Maker (free) software…

  3. That´s an old hat…..

    h.

    • There are lots of new people with iPhone’s

  4. OR you could just shorten the file in itunes then change the file to an m4r. Instead of going through a whole new application. I have over 300 ringtones on my iphone, all done this way.

  5. Or, you could just pick any song in your library, select “get info” and set the start and end times for the songs to the section you want to have as your ringtone (no more than 40s). Then convert the file to AAC format (the file length will now be the length you specified). Remove the file from the library – but do not delete the file from disk. Find the file in finder, and change the extension from .mpa to .mpr and add it to itunes again. It will automatically add it as a shiny new ringtone =)

  6. awell.. I still think that my comment explains the procedure in a little more detail =)

  7. The easiest way to do it (if you have a mac ) i found is to drag a song into garage band and edit it then go to share and click export to itunes as ringtone. I have done this to create many ringtones just make sure the loop button is enabled and sometimes the song wont play in garage band so just mark the times and itunes and edit it in garage band.

  8. I’ve been using audiko for a while. Ive never tried making my own through the site since there are many easier ways to do it (as many of you have pointed out) but it is nice because I can find just about anything I want already on the site for download which can be immediately loaded into itunes and on my phone.

  9. Hello! Good tip in your post.
    I think that today one of the few things that can differentiate one cell from another is the ringtone. After all, more and more people are using the same type of device (iPhones, for example). Moreover, the ringtone is now a brand of style.
    So I use a nice variety in my cell.
    And all got for free at: http://j.mp/vy3Xg
    Well, that’s it! Some of the other visitors have another opinion?
    Hugs

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