It took a very strange occurrence the other day for me to realize it was time to change the ringtone on my iPhone. (BTW I got an iPhone 3GS about a month ago, and I love it to death) While in the waiting room at Central Car Wash my iPhone rang, with the ever so familiar Marimba ringtone, and no less than 3 other people in the room all reached for the iPhones. Turns out that this is a good ringtone, and the most common one used. I got a kick out of this either way, as well as when someone else’s Glass text message notifier went off and all four of us reached for our iPhones in sync for a second time.
At first glance, it appears to be difficult to add a ringtone to your iPhone or iTunes, unless you are tech savvy enough to have some killer audio mixing software. After that the options slide to paying an additional $0.99 to have Apple make a ringtone for you. I decided to find something simple and free for making an iPhone ringtone, and that solution was Audiko. Turns out all you have to do is upload an audio file (AAC, MP3…) or link to a Youtube video. Once the track uploads you are given a very elegant visual editing bar. This bar provides playback options, and markers for maximum length for iPhone ringtones. Once you are done selecting your cut of the song you click through, add any needed track info, and then download the track to your computer. Double click the file, and it gets automatically added to iTunes under the Ringtones sidebar. Then next time you sync your iPhone your new ringtones are added instantly.
So far as I’ve read this site makes ringtones for other types of phones, but I do not know the full details of what formats. Check it out though, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.