How to Make Custom iPhone Ringtones for Free | eHow.com

I found this a while ago, but thought I should share it with the world.  I personally think it’s unheard of for iTunes to charge you the same for 40 seconds of a song and the whole song.  It’s a total rip-off.  I’m not gonna spend a buck to buy a song and then spend another buck just to have them format it for me so I can use it on my iPhone.  So, anyways, here’s how you can do it yourself:

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

* iPhone

* iTunes

* Mac or Windows Computer

* Non-DRM song (i.e. one not bought from the iTunes Store)

(If you want to do this with a song you bought from the iTunes Store, you have to first burn that song onto a CD and then re-load it into iTunes from the CD – that way it loses its DRM-ness)

Step 1

Open iTunes.

Step 2

Find the song that you want to make into a ringtone.

Step 3

Listen to the song and find the part of it you want to use. The chorus may be a good place to start.

Step 4

Write down the start and stop times of the clip.

Step 5

Right-click the song and select “Get Info.”

Step 6

Click the “Options” tab.

Step 7

Type in the start time of your ringtone in the text box next to “Start Time” in the minutes:seconds (i.e. 2:01) format.

Step 8

Type in the end time of your ringtone in the text box next to “Stop Time.” Make sure the ringtone is no more than 40 seconds long.

Step 9

Click “OK”.

Step 10

Right-click your song again and select “Convert Selection to AAC”. Wait for iTunes to convert your song. It will create a duplicate version.

Step 11

Right-click the ringtone and select “Delete”.

Step 12

Click on the “Keep Files” button.

Step 13

Find the file. It’s usually in your User folder under Music > iTunes > iTunes Music and under the band’s name. It will have an extension of “m4a.”

Step 14

Replace the “m4a” extension of your ringtone with “m4r”. You can either double-click slowly to re-name your file, or right-click and select “Get Info” on a Mac or “Rename” on a Windows PC.

Step 15

Click “Use .m4r” or the PC equivalent when the system warns you that the change may affect the use of your file.

Step 16

Double-click the ringtone file.   iTunes will automatically add it to your ringtones folder in your iTunes Music Library.

Step 17

Connect your iPhone and sync your ringtones.

via How to Make Custom iPhone Ringtones for Free | eHow.com.

Step 18

Stick it to the man!