Just wondering why I have to pay to make a ring tone on itunes?

I agree, this is bad practice. All signs point to the fact that Apple wanted to ship ringtones on day one for all iTunes customers, but that licensing issues with the record labels prevented them from implementing this is the software—regardless of where the track came from.

As a plus side, there is a little publicised feature hidden in Garageband, that allows you to export a track as an iTunes ringtone, provided the original track is unprotected. If you have a Mac, you can try this out.

In addition, if you Google for “make an iPhone ringtone” and dig through the results, you will find ways to circumvent the process (I don’t think Apple are that bothered).

It’s a real shame, Apple are often criticised for not allowing this for free, and for what it’s worth I’m sure it would be free if the labels hadn’t have stepped in.

Hope this helps.

Thanks! but is there a good “free” program for windows? I’ve tried some and they’re pretty crappy!

I’m not quite sure, I don’t think so I’m afraid. Best of luck.

Audiko is 100% free

Since your question asked “why”, I will answer that specifically.

Apple is beholden to the whims of the record labels. The music belongs to them – and there is already a ringtone-for-profit business model. As far as the record labels are concerned, allowing the customers to get ringtones “for free” is unprofitable. Because of this, Apple worked deals with them to sell them for $0.99 cents as opposed to the current market price of $2.50+.

There is zero need for outside software, free or not.

Apple’s hands are tied for the most part. But they have not left their customers high and dry. Anyone who messes with GarageBand will find an unadvertised feature to create ringtones. Another method is to simply change the filename extension of any .aac file to .m4r, and double-click the .m4r so it will add itself to the Ringtone directory in iTunes.

For more info, read http://daringfireball.net/2007/09/the_ringtones_racket.

you can try audacity, i used it to make some on a friends computer for her. but I make mine in garage band on my mac

If you have mac – you can garageband them from most of your itunes collection. I say most as some of the artists have protected them so that you can not ‘hack’ them into a ringtone.