For those of you using cell phones, one of the more costly features is the ability to download custom ringtones. Some ringtones on Verizon Wireless can cost $8.00. That's almost half the price of a standard CD for a 30 second clip of one song.
Some carriers and phones let you choose an mp3 from your music player to use as a ringtone. Others are open enough to let you go online and (for a price usually) find a ringtone and get it sent to your phone. However, on Verizon Wireless you seem to be stuck. You either buy a ringtone through Verizon's Get It Now feature or you wait for a Free download to show up in Get It Now which rarely ever happens.
With some tinkering and exploration online and on other web sites, I've found a way to get your favorite ringtones onto your Verizon phone for free and using any operating system. You'll need the following:
- Your favorite mp3 file
- Audacity sound editor. You will also need to make sure you have the LAME MP3 Encoder so that you can export as an mp3 file.
- An E-mail address
- Pix messaging. If you don't have a texting plan, be careful as Verizon may charge you for downloading a text/pix message.
The first step is to open up your mp3 file in Audacity. Select about 30 seconds worth of the song that you want to use as your ringtone. Some phones support longer, but it keeps the file size down and therefore makes it faster to send. Also Verizon may reject your message if it's too large.
You can go up to Edit > Trim and this will crop your 30 seconds of music. Now go to File > Export and save your file as an MP3 file. The trick is to save it so that the file is an MP3, but its file extention is .midi. So tack on .midi onto the end of the file name.
save file with a .midi extention
Select yes in this dialog box
So what we have so far is a 30 second clip of a song saved as a mp3 file with a .midi file extention. Simple right?
Next, open up your email client. For the TO address, your email will be (tendigitnumber) @vzwpix.com. Example would be 5551230987@vzwpix.com. You need to make sure that you fill in a subject, so make it something like "ringtone" and fill in something for the body so make it something like "ringtone".
Attach your .midi mp3 file you made earlier, and send the email.
Make sure you fill in both a subject and body for the email!
You should get a pix message on your cell phone. After you open it, go to options and select Save as Ringtone.
You may need to play around with the settings on Audacity to get the best sounding ringtone. I'd suggest having it on mono instead of stereo, or raising the bitrate at which it encodes your mp3 file.
If you need help with anything, or you have any recommended settings post a comment or contact me.
Update:
This will not charge you for "data transfer" which can be expensive. This will only charge on your bill as a Pix-Flix message. If you have texting on your plan, you will not be charged at all. If you don't have a texting plan, it will only cost about 25 cents for receiving a pix-flix message.
Read more about DIY Verizon Ringtones
