There’s no denying that the ringtone business is a boon to someone’s bankroll. It’s a multibillion industry worldwide, and annual profits in the US are expected to top out at around $1 billion. But many users are learning to avoid ringtone fees. How? By making their own ringtones for free.
How can I make ringtones?
You have a variety of options. Some methods for making free ringtones are simple enough for a new computer user. Others are a bit more complex, and a more advanced option requires some programming effort. Five methods are described below. Note that your options may be limited by your model of mobile phone.
1) An easy method: Make and send a free ringtone online
2) A pretty easy method: Make a ringtone online and transfer it yourself
3) A bit more complex: Download software to make ringtones yourself
4) For more advanced users: Program a ringtone
5) For professionals: Make ringtones for fun and profit
1) An easy method: Make and send a free ringtone online
Many websites now offer free ringtone makers. For example, MyTinyPhone.com lets people upload and edit music from their own collections. You can also make ringtones from thousands of audio files that other users have contributed. After you edit a song into a ringtone, simply enter your mobile phone number to transfer the tune as a message attachment or a web link. More sites for making free ringtones include ToneThis.com and Myxer.com.
This method of transferring a ringtone, called over-the-air (OTA), is available to most mobile phone users. Some exceptions are Nextel users who do not use BlackBerries or similar devices. Nextel’s iDEN, Powersource, and QChat phone models cannot accept ringtones over-the-air from a website.
Note that although it’s free to make ringtones on the above sites, your cell phone company might charge a fee whenever you download a ringtone, open a text or picture message from a friend, or otherwise transfer data. Check your service plan to see whether downloading is included in your current plan.
2) A pretty easy method: Make a ringtone online and transfer it yourself
If you’d rather avoid a downloading fee, or if your phone doesn’t accept OTA file transfers, you can still make ringtones online and transfer them to your phone. Depending on your phone model, you can accomplish this with a BlueTooth or infrared device, a memory card, and/or a data cable. ToneBee.com offers a free ringtone maker for users who transfer in these ways.
3) A bit more complex: Download software to make ringtones yourself
Online ringtone makers offer just a few editing options. ToneBee only lets you edit the ringtone’s length. Myxer lets you edit length and add “fade-in” and “fade-out” effects to a clip, but there’s not much else you can do. Why not edit songs with your own software? Audio editing software is available for free from a variety of shareware sites. ShareMe.com and Audacity are good places to start.
Some of the more advanced ringtone software even lets you mix different tracks together. A popular application of this technology is sing tones. These are karaoke-style ringtones in which a user mixes their own voice with a background track.
When you make ringtones with your own software, be sure to create them in the proper file format. Your phone might be capable of playing MP3s, but it might only play ringtones that are in MIDI, RTTTL, or another format. Your phone manual (available online) should explain your audio options.
Once you’ve made a new ringtone, you can transfer it to your phone with a cable, BlueTooth, or other file transfer method.
4) For more advanced users: Program a ringtone
You can also make ringtones by programming them directly into your phone.
If your phone has a composer, it will probably be accessible through its “Tones” or “Settings” menu. If your phone isn’t already equipped with a ringtone composer, find out if a free composer is available by download. About.com can help you determine whether your phone can accept self-programmed ringtones.
Once you have a ringtone composer, you can make up your own tunes or enter programs posted at sites such as Merwin’s Ringtone Search and MyMusicTools.com. These can be found through searches for “MIDI sequences” and “keypress sequences”.
5) For professionals: Make ringtones for fun and profit
Even though mobile phone users can make their own ringtones, people will always want to purchase professional ready-made ringtones, too. Professionals need to understand a wide variety of cell phone models’ audio capabilities and, in many cases, how to program for the lowest common denominator.
If you want to break into the ringtones industry as a freelancer, check out Luke Holden’s article, Lord of the Ringtones, for expert guidance.
