Make Your Own Free Ringtones in iTunes 10 in Nine Easy Steps [How To]

By

post-58047-image-003d20afbf893fa43113869b7e64188b-jpg

Apple made a lot of changes to iTunes when it introduced version 10. A lot of those changes were cosmetic, but some of them included removing features like ringtone creation. Luckily, you can make your own ringtones out of any song in iTunes 10 using these nine easy steps.

All you need to get started is a copy of iTunes 10 installed on your Mac and your music library.

Step 1: Launch iTunes 10.

Step 2: Locate the song you want to make a ringtone out of in your iTunes Music Library and select it.

I selected the song Drive by the Cars. One of my all time favorite songs.

Step 3: Right-click the selected song, select “Get Info,” and then click on the Options tab.

Step 4: Locate the playback period of the song and set the beginning and ending to be any 30 second segment of that song. Click “Ok.”

Step 5: Right-click the selected song again and select “Create AAC version. ” iTunes 10 will create a new version of the song composed of the 30 second interval you selected. This will become your new ringtone.

Step 6: Locate the new 30 second song clip you created, right-click that song clip, and select “Show in Finder. ”

Note the two versions of the song Drive. The smaller sized file is the 30-second clip.

Step 7: Using Finder rename the file changing the extension from .m4a to .m4r. If prompted to accept the file extension change be sure to confirm that your selection was .m4r.

Step 8: Locate the 30 second song clip in iTunes 10 and press Delete when prompted do not move the file to the Trash and make sure that you select “Keep File. ” Note: If you happen to be prompted to remove the selected song from your iTunes library click Remove.


Step 9: Finally, you’ll need to re-import the song clip into iTunes 10 by double-clicking the .m4r file in Finder.

The song clip will now be added back into iTunes 10, but this time it will be added as a ringtone. You can now sync that ringtone with your iPhone, assign it to a contact, etc.

This method isn’t necessarily elegant, but it is free. You already have everything you need to make your own ringtones – iTunes, your music library, and this How-to. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and get started you’ll have a personalized ringtone for your iPhone in only a few minutes.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.