Related Sections: Cellphones Shift
SHIFT: Why are we paying phone companies billions for ringtones?
My cellphone just died, catastrophically. My first clue: The display on the LCD was upside-down and backwards. I didn't even think that was even possible, but, yup, that's what it was doing. A quick trip to the AT&T store, and cute new phone was in hand. I was able to transfer my numbers, but my downloaded ringtones died with the old phone.
Ringtones, a market that didn't exist 10 years ago, have become a revenue stream for cellphone providers that they cling onto with unparalleled ferocity. After my I got my new phone, I quickly became immersed in the lucrative and oddly controversial world of ringtones. Keep reading to see why ringtones have become big business, and how you can beat the system.
Ringtones: The Beginning
First, a little history. When cellphones phones first came out they had a few options for customizing your phone, none of them particularly interesting. As mastertones became possible (snippets of real recordings, as opposed to songs synthesized within the phone) a huge marketplace opened up. Now ringtones are big business. Reports from a few years ago said the ringtone industry earns more than $5 billion a year.
Search for ringtones online and you'll find an amazing, overwhelming selection. You can get mosquito tones that only younger people can hear. You can get a ringtone that only your dog will hear. (Seriously, what good is that?) You can set ringtones to specific callers so you know exactly who is calling. Beethoven for your mom, Pussycat Dolls for your girlfriend, and the theme from Monday Night Football for your best bud. Fun stuff.
How They Get You
Once I got my new phone, a Nokia 6085, it was time to start shopping for ringtones. It starts innocently enough. You can search from seemingly thousands of websites. Most try to get you to subscribe to a ringtone service. Do you really need to change the tones that often? Apparently we're truly a short attention span society, since there are so many of these companies.
Not wanting to get scammed, I just went to AT&T's ringtone website. It had hundreds of options, and it was oh-so simple to click and shop. There were a few free downloads, but most were $2.49 for the 20-30 second clip. After auditioning the clips, my choices were automatically sent to my phone with just a few painless clicks. Doesn't get easier? But a few minutes later I realized that in those few short minutes, I had grabbed $15 worth of ringtones, automatically billed to my phone. I get a phone call about every two or three days. I'll never even get to use them.
Now, at $2.49 a pop, I got to wondering — why are these so expensive? Some of my picks are songs that I've already purchased and downloaded for 99 cents from iTunes, or 89 cents from Amazon. Why am I paying so much for a shorter, most likely lower-quality version?
Even after paying a premium for the ringtones, plus the airtime to shop for and download it to your phone, some carriers don't even let you keep them forever. Yes, your ringtones can expire. So, you're paying up to three times as much for a 30-second clip of a song, and you don't even get to keep it.
Why Can't I Use iTunes Songs as Ringtones?
Simply put, unless you have an iPhone, it's a no-go. Weird, I know. If you are one of the chosen phone owners, it's still not as simple as sending a tune to the phone. If your song is available as a ringtone (it will have a little bell icon) you still pay the 99 cents to download, but here's the rub. You have to pay another 99 cents to retag it as a ringtone. The good news is that you can use an edit program to pick the portion of the song you want to use.
The reason why we all have to pay so much for ringtones has to do, as always, with copyrights and royalties. When you download a song, you pay 9 cents in royalties. However, a recent ruling bumped the royalty for ringtones up to 24 cents per song.
The Backdoor to Free Ringtones
There's a backdoor, however, that lets you avoid paying any fees. You can create a mastertone ringtone from a CD that you've ripped, but you'll need a software program to put it in the proper format. It's really not that hard and easy enough to find the software online.
Even though there are simple workarounds to getting free ringtones, the providers are still making a killing on them. A lot of people ask why the phone companies charge so much for them. The answer is obvious: because they can. The real question is: Why are we all willing to pay so much?
By Al at 6:56 PM ON 11/06/08
The answer to why is simple. It's a "ME" society, or rather, an "id" society. Being an individual is just as important as being a part of the in crowd. You don't want to be left out and typically, you don't want to seem like someone stuck with the same ringtone selections from the start of the semester to the end. Cha-ching, phone companies! Peer pressure is working for you in more ways than you know!
By beowuff at 7:20 PM ON 11/06/08
I believe the following only works for iPhones...
You can use GarageBand to make new ringtones. I've done this with some of my iTunes purchased songs as well as mp3s I'd made from CDs. Once you import the song, there's a menu item to export as a ring tone. Then, you select the part of the song you want as a ring tone. Presto! Chango! The part of the song you wanted shows up in iTunes...
I've NEVER paid for a ring tone...
By DJ Animay at 8:10 PM ON 11/06/08
@beowuff
When you do that it shows up in iTunes but good luck trying 2 sync it. After the youtube vid on how to rename the file 2 a format ending w/"r" they put out a patch & no more free ripping :(
-M@
By airmanchairman at 8:12 PM ON 11/06/08
As far as the iPhone is concerned, there is a fairly simple workaround to add your own ringtones using iTunes 8.x without having to pay 99c, but it requires the use of DRM-free MP3 or AAC files:
http://www.intomobile.com/2008/10/07/iphone-ringtones-create-free-iphone-ringtones-using-itunes-8.html
By Smurf at 8:34 PM ON 11/06/08
Are you people all stupid I just traded up from my moto L7C to a LG UX260 both of which have microSD slots and can use ANY mp3 as a ringer if you stick the card in the computer and put the files on it then move them from the card to the phone memory. I use full songs (from my collection) and movie clips from Moviewavs.com. I never pay for any of them. If you want a certain part of a song use an editor to save just the clip you want and do the same thing computer-card-phone. With my old moto I didnt even have to tek the card out of the phone it had a mini usb plug on the stupid phone and worked like a thumb drive when I plugged it in. The LG I have to take it out but how hard is that.
By DJ Animay at 8:44 PM ON 11/06/08
@ air
Tks 4 the link but i'm telln ya jobs is 1 step ahead of us on this 1. i don't have a mac but the steps r the same as before, i'll try it again @ post the outcome.
@ smurf
put the pipe down were talkn about the iPhone, lol :p
-M@
By kShadhavar at 9:22 PM ON 11/06/08
My music files are in several different formats, I have never had any problem making my own ringtones. I used a guide I found through Make magazine and a website to 'text' the files to my phone. Wired also has a good article on their site on diy ringtones. They prefer 'Audacity' an open source audio editor. good stuff.
By holysheet at 9:37 PM ON 11/06/08
I just wish that there could be more people like Leslie, the author of this article. Most people would not even try to look for the "why" this "why" that, they just let the government manipulate them. The next second they see is having chips in their heads trying to control them and when the government would see that that person is trying to do something they would just turn it off, which would kill the person.(www.zeitgeistmovie.com - cool movie about looking outside of the box) I hope there would be more people with open minds so we could change the world we live in. Why can't we just have one charger to the laptop? and not specialized ones that you have to pay 5 times more than others? just thing guys ...think.... ;)
By Kingpin003 at 9:52 PM ON 11/06/08
Hint: Audacity!(As long as your phone lets you play mp3 files)
Just load up a select song in audacity, cut out the chunk you want, then put the sd card in your pc. Transfer it over, and set it directly as your ringtone. Free! Easy! Fast! You know you want to... *Thumbs up*
I have never and won't ever pay for a ringtone. I don't think I should have to pay for the right to have whatever I want as my ringtone.
By dorkman at 10:01 PM ON 11/06/08
iTunes will convert ripped mp3's to AAC format. I've got all the ringtones I can stand from that little trick.
By Lobsang at 10:08 PM ON 11/06/08
I loved the irony in reading this story while an ad at the top of dvice.com advertised "Eat your banana faster than the monkey to get a free ringtone"
:)
By joshikins at 10:12 PM ON 11/06/08
Funny how you said you have a Nokia 6085... I have the same phone, you an use mp3s midis and i'm sure other formats as ring tones. I have never bought a ring-tone and never will, if you can't find a way to use something as a ring-tone for free it's your own fault for buying a phone that doesn't support it.
By AngryOldMan at 2:10 AM ON 11/07/08
As a recent Sith apprentice....um, I mean new iPhone user, I found that the iRinger program works best for the iPhone/ringtone solution. You can check it out here: http://www.iringer.net/ Oh, it's free, too.
By X5TUU at 3:31 AM ON 11/07/08
Apple did stop the backdoor for the iphone ringtone "backdoor" but there is stall a way around it in itunes alone windows or mac.
basically, select the song and section of the song - if find a 30sec snippet works best, right click to convert to AAC, when converted right click your new track again and show it in Windows Explorer, when the explorer opens change the extension to .m4r double click and it will repoen the file in the ringtones section of iTunes and will transfer to your iPhone no bother, I use the latest iTunes and 2.1f/w iphone without any hitch
By imotionsrt4 at 7:57 AM ON 11/07/08
paying for ringtones lol.
A long time ago I used to go to walmart.com and listen to the 30 second clips or so and find the want I wanted (they used to be mp3's). Once I found it I would copy the link and use AIM to send it to my motorolla v400. Then I would download link and there was my free ringtone. They eventually changed the format from mp3 to something different and it didn't work anymore.
That's when I picked up a usb cord off of ebay.
Then I would just pick any song off my HD, edit it, and sync it.
Now my blackberry is just as easy.
As for you iphone users.....you sheep crack me up. I do admit it's pretty cool some of the things the iphone can do, but there always seems to be a long list of hoops you have to jump through to use some apple products.
I mean look at all the crap you have to go to just get a freaking ringtone. Apple is a leader in inovation, but they are also a business that seems to do everything they can to get as much money out of you as possible.
By ryback at 8:09 AM ON 11/07/08
Being an iphone user is kind of like being in an amusement park. It's all fun and games but when you need something to eat you have to pay out of the nose. The money they charge only flies in the confined space you are in. Anywhere else in the world you would laugh in that burger flipping job's face.
By EnOne at 8:43 AM ON 11/07/08
I never cared for ringtones I believe that when my phone rings it should sound like a phone. But I think that I've purchased tetris for my phone a half a dozen times.
By beowuff at 9:54 AM ON 11/07/08
I don't know what all that stuff about changing file names is about... I just use this simple and easy way to convert any of my iTunes or MP3 songs over to ring tones.
Simple, easy, free...
This is what I was reffering to in my other post.
By Tony at 12:56 PM ON 11/07/08
With my Moto Q9c, I just download or copy from my pc, a normal mp3, and then select it as a ringtone. No fudging needed.
By CoolProducts at 1:01 PM ON 11/07/08
Phonezoo.com
This site lets you upload songs from your own pc and customize a ringtone up to 30 seconds and then freely save it to the site and send it to your phone.
By MrCIA at 4:14 PM ON 11/07/08
Step 1, Insert USB cable into PC and cellphone.
Step 2, Select song.
Step 3, Copy song to cellphone.
Step 4, Remove Cable from cellphone.
Step 5, Use setup screen on cellphone to select new song as ringsignal.
What is the big problem here people?
By None at 6:23 PM ON 11/07/08
Use ITunes Right click on the song you want as the ringtone,click on Get Info then click on the Options Tab. you will see start and stop most ringtones are 30 seconds long so keep it with in the time frame. Then convert to mp3 at a low bitrate 96 kbs is good. Put it in your memory cards sound file and send it to your phone you can save it as a ringtone.
By jason at 7:05 PM ON 11/07/08
you'll notice the ringtones that are advertised are usually the most mindless songs that are popular right now (soulja boy). this is why they make money off of it, because anyone who is going to actually want that to be their ring tone is probably too technologically behind that they don't know any better
By DJ ANimay at 4:31 AM ON 11/08/08
ok so outcome was this... just as i said before the iphone will not take a file renamed with the extension of m4r. i go 2 windows exp & find the acc file i made & rename with the m4r ext, then i open itunes & it is in my ringtone section but when i plug in the iphone & go to the device 2 sync the ringtone doesn't show up in the devices section so i can sync it. if ny1 can help i'd really really appreciate it!!!
By armydrummer at 9:16 PM ON 11/09/08
You should check out http://www.myxer.com/ It's completely free, and you can upload ANY song from your computer and have it sent straight to your phone.
I don't buy ringtones anymore since I discovered this sight.
By ziro at 5:32 PM ON 11/10/08
I don't know about your phones but with my Nokia 6300 it works just like MRCIA told. Plug in with USB, copy songs, plug out. If song editing is needed, Audacity works great for me.
By standard at 9:32 PM ON 11/12/08
One word. Vibrate.
By Kev at 9:09 AM ON 11/13/08
The offcial promotional web sites for movies are starting to offer free ringtones (theme songs, dialogue clips, etc.). Some recent examples are Max Payne, X-Files, AvP Requiem, and The House Bunny.
By Jon at 11:52 AM ON 11/13/08
Check out phonezoo
http://www.phonezoo.com/
It's a Youtube for ringtones, and it's free, No spam either!
no more not being able to listen to a preview...
I payed like $1.99 just to hear evanesence singing 'i'm going under' 3 times... what a ripoff.
By emm333arrddd at 8:10 PM ON 11/17/08
i never use the sound on my phone for call alerts. my phone is always on vibrate. if the phone's not on me, i don't answer it. its that simple. ringtones are stupid and annoying. people walking around in stores shopping with their way uncool sounds blasting from their pockets and purses... get a clue... I Don't Want To Hear Your Crappy Ringtone And It's Not Frickin Cool. Period. please be polite and keep your terrible sound clips to yourselves. if you don't, i personally will have to make a ringtone so annoying that you all hate me and will find a way to amplify my speaker volume so everyone gets the point. let's make a deal, you keep your sounds out of my listening space and i'll do the same.
besides, service providers love you for having disposable incomes and careless spending habits.
By abj at 8:32 PM ON 11/17/08
i have an iPhone and i use iPhoneRingToneMaker. There is also wmRingtoneMaker if you have a windows mobile device
By KDRAM at 8:39 PM ON 11/17/08
a good work around is if you can get audacity + the LAME encoder (its freeware) and if your phone has Bluetooth & plays MP3 then... edit any MP3 file in audacity then send it to your phone. tada one ringtone for the price of the CD/song file
By GDannyboy at 11:54 PM ON 01/02/09
I've been with Cingular, now AT&T, for almost a decade. In that time I've owned several cell phones and I have to say, compared to my friend's other networks, AT&T is the easiest network to create and upload your own ringtones to your phone.
By KELSEYADAMSS at 12:05 AM ON 02/06/09
So i have a LG UX260, and i have a SD card.
I plugged the SD card into my computer.
And with the ringtone i created on ITUNES, i dragged it over onto my SD card.
Thinking thats all i had to do, i removed the SD CARD from my computer back into my phone.
When i searched for the ringtone it wasnt there.
im thinking it has to do with the type of file itunes saves the ringtones as, & thats why they dont play none the less show up in my phone.
i need to convert itunes files into mp3's so they can play on my phone
but i dont know how?
on your cellphone!
Text DVICE to 72434
editor@dvice.com
KELSEYADAMSS:
So i have a LG UX260, and i have a SD card. I plugged the SD card into my computer. And with the ringtone i creat...More »