How to Make Custom iPhone Ringtones for Free!

So you bought an iPhone. You're in love with the phone and all its ninja like features features, but wish you didn't have to pay for your songs twice to get a ringtone - SUPER LAME!  There are plenty of songs in your music library, but no way to make ringtones from any of them. Or is there? Actually, with a little bit of trickery [nothing illegal, of course], you can create custom ringtones from any one of your non-DRM songs in your iTunes library easily and for free.

Note: This should work on both Mac and Windows PCs. =)


 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.
• You can also Edit one of your favorite songs in a music editing program to the exact time beforehand and to add fade in and fade out effects. [Audacity is the program I use and it's FREE]

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 or it will not work.

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." [If you do not do it this way, it wont work]

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 rename 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.

ENJOY! Hopefully this will work for you!

Custom Concert T-Shirts by Heather Kant in Phoenix, Arizona

Going to concerts is always fun for me [even if the band isn't good, haha] and I feel so lucky that I live in a city where we have real artists that get to come and put on amazing shows. Maybe it's the small town girl in me, but it feels amazing to go to concerts so I do everything I can to make it special.  Like custom t-shirt designs.

Around this time last year my friend Frank and I had the brilliant idea [and not a time consuming idea at all, lol] to make custom concert t-shirts for ATB's concert in Scottsdale.  We thumbnailed our ideas out on paper and then we mocked them up in photoshop. Neither of us had custom t-shirt making skills so we had all of these wild ideas, haha. We even tried to find a local t-shirt company who could print it for us but we didn't have any luck with that [Too short of a notice].  Tear.

Our first ideas was to use sticky fabric with the glue built into the back. We took our adventure to Walmart for our t-shirt supplies and lucky for us they didn't have the wacky fabric we were looking for and we decided to try Michaels [I say lucky, because it would have looked stupid]. We didn't have any luck at Michaels either so we drove all the way across town to another craft store where we found fabric paint. Oh how the idea wheels were turning then. It was settled, we bought the fabric paint and some white spray paint. About twenty dollars worth of craft supplies supplies later, we were ready to move forward in our adventure. The next day we printed off our ATB stencil templates and cut them out with some exacto knives. Whoa Nelly - it took FOREVER cutting them out!!!!! 

Our t-shirts turned out really cool for ATB's concert and I still wear my shirt every now and again. I think Andre saw them and had a chuckle. Sadly, I was too chicken to ask him for a photo or an autograph but I was still only 2 feet away from him the whole night. I even made friends with some of his crew, I love being VIP at concerts. I paid for VIP because I really really wanted my photo, but I was just too chicken -- SIGH. Also, the reason I ATB is my favorite dj is because he was the first trance/dance/techno cd I ever owned.  I had ATB, George Acosta, and Daft Punk. Thanks to these artists I'm the trance/house/dance/electronic music lover that I am today. ATB continues to be at the top of my favorite music list for ten years now, too funny. 

Spray paint t-shirt making tips:

- Use spray mount on the back of your stencils when you lay it down on your shirt so it doesn't move. This creates nice straight lines so it looks professional. We tried it without it first and it didn't look good at all.

- USE FLAT PAINT. Glossy leaves gross little balls of paint on your shirt that never come off. 

- Don't waist your time on fabric paint. It's stupid, doesn't work, messy, and costs a lot more. 

- Tape everything else off. Spray paint goes EVERYWHERE! 

- Paint outside [This is a given but you never know]

- Must make fun shirts with a good friend because it makes it a lot more fun. 

- When you see the artist and they see you wearing your custom tshirt pray they don't think you're a hardcore stalker creeper, lol. 

Now that a year has gone by I feel like it is tradition to try and make a custom t-shirt for concerts if I can.  This summer it was Kaskade in Scottsdale.  I had about a month to plan this time, so I was going to go professional. I had the brilliant idea to make a t-shirt that was a cascade dishwasher soap box but instead of Cascade it was Kaskade, I also changed the forks to a headphone and added some other music stuff verbiage. Haha! Too funny and awesome, right?

[Click Image for a larger view]

I found out from my new co-workers that there was a place on Mill Ave that prints shirts instant for a good price. WHAT?! PROFESSIONAL PRINTED SHIRTS?! I jumped on that soul train and emailed them right away. Sadly, my super awesome design was too detailed so I had to modify my file several times but we ended up with an amazing print, it was well worth it! I cannot tell you how cool it was to have professional custom t-shirts printed, what a feeling! I've done a lot of graphic design in my days but it's always cool to see something you've made real. 

My friend Angela, my boyfriend Adrian, and I all went to the Kaskade concert last night and we had a ball. It was a bummer it was so packed like a can of sardines because we couldn't dance or move, but it was still fun. It was my first time to the club Axis Radius in Scottsdale, Arizona and I think they need to work on their capacity rules a little bit. There is no way that was legal - whoa too many people batman! I'm happy and grateful nothing bad happened, just good music and friends.

Now that I have all of this custom t-shirt making knowledge I want to make more shirts, haha. Let me know if you need one made or if you need more tips. Email Me

Here are some photos of my shirts

[Click Image for a larger view]

On a side-note, I also made a custom t-shirts for the bands Resurrected Remains and Monster in the Mirror. I'll have photos to share soon, but I'm confident they turned out nice [simple logo vector artwork]. These are my younger brother's bands so if you want to show your support that would be awesome! 

Resurrected Remains

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