I exploited the fantastic freeware app MiniTones to turn Brendan Benson’s “Spit It Out” into my ringtone on my old mobile phone

But when I upgraded to an iPhone, I found out that iTunes charged for ringtones–even if you’re the owner of the track.

My tightwad nature does not make allowances for that. ( It’s not the cash, it’s the idea of the thing. ) So I chose to “roll my” iPhone ringtone, which turned out to be a pretty easy process.

Start iTunes and find the track you need to convert. ( it has got to be an MP3. )

Right-click the track and select Get Data .

Push the Options tab.

Check the Start Time and Stop Time boxes, then enter times for each ( no more than thirty seconds apart, the maximum length for a ringtone ). I used 0:00 and 0:30, respectively, as “Spit It Out” has an ideal rising lead-in.

Click OK, then right-click the track again and select Create AAC Version. You need to instantly see a new 30-second version of the tune. Drag that version out of iTunes and into the folder of your preference.

Remove the 30-second version from iTunes and undo the Start Time / Stop Time changes to the original.

Open the folder containing the 30-second AAC file you dragged out of iTunes, then change the file extension from .m4a to .m4r.

Double-click it and it instantly gets added to iTunes ‘ ringtone library. Eventually , sync your iPhone.

When it’s done, you can head into the settings and choose your new ringtone.