Free Ringtones

Mobile phones have brought to us the convenience of communicating with others. They have moved beyond being a mere technological object to becoming a key social object, present in every aspect of our daily lives. Mobile phones are shaping the identity of individuals, families and social groups. Adults and youths increasingly view them as a status symbol alike. With mobile phones becoming one of the most prominent status symbols, they have also become an expression of identity, a fashion statement. People now want to accessorise their mobile phones in the same way that women accessorise their outfits.

Ring tones provide us an opportunity to add a personal touch to our mobile phones. While people, especially the youth may choose their own style and not care about what is popular; they keep themselves updated with the latest trends in ringtones.

Just 15 years ago, not everyone could afford mobile phones. Today, they're must-haves, and young people are driving the movement to make them cooler. Mobile phones say a lot about who you are and moreover they are reasonably affordable. Having the hottest phone has become a necessity for most people.

In the past few years, mobile phones have created a new industry for accessories. Just as the clothes people wear reflect who they are, mobile phone ring tones say something about people's personalities. Ring tones, wallpaper, faceplates, charms, cases, purses, flashing antennae and more give phones a personal look. You can change your personality and then you can change your phone, ring tones and wallpapers.

Ring tones started as a functional device to help users distinguish callers without looking at the phone. Women are most fashion conscious so they tend to change their ringtones almost everyday. The tones can be a popular song or even your own poetry. It's really a way for you to broadcast to the world what your point of view on life is.

Manufacturers now sell fashion phones; for example, the Nokia 7280 looks like a tube of lipstick. Now you can stand out with your favorite song or band you love. When your mobile phone rings, you'll know it's yours. Just as the shirt you are wearing reflects your personality, your mobile phone ring tone displays your individuality. Your mobile phone is no more different from your clothes.

Just as the invention of chords gave birth to a new range of sound and music, the addition of polyphonic capabilities to mobile phones will forever change the mobile experience.

The pull of popular culture is what is driving the current worldwide popularity of mobile phones. Owning a cool phone is considered the “in thing” and makes people feel that they “belong”. Popular culture is also the reason for the current popularity of certain fringe cultural outlets like world cinema or world music. It is not surprising that these two worlds – phones and world cinema – would meet and come up with a surprisingly new and fresh fad. Bollywood ringtones on your mobile phone.

For those who are as yet unfamiliar with the term, Bollywood is a term that has been given to the Hindi-language film industry in India. The term “Bollywood” is a mix of the names “Bombay” (which is the old name of Mumbai) and “Hollywood” the acknowledged center of the American film industry. The Indian film industry is one of the most robust in the world. It is considered as one of the most prolific in terms of the number of films released each year. It is also the number one when it comes to the total number of ticket sales.

The most unique (or most peculiar, depending on your personal taste) feature of Bollywood movies are the musical numbers incorporated into almost all movie offerings. This does not necessarily mean that Bollywood movies are all musicals. It is just that by tradition, a movie is not considered complete without a song and dance number. And unlike the typical musical, these numbers contain plot points and action that are not found in US-style musical. For most Indian moviegoers a movie that does not contain at least one song and dance number is considered incomplete and not worth the price of the ticket. Traditional Indian dance and music forms heavily influence these song and dance numbers. Even pop or modern songs and dances are injected with distinctively Indian elements that make them quite unique.

It is these unique Bollywood songs (also known as filmi music) that are gaining a renewed popularity as ringtones for mobile phones. There may be two major reasons for the growing popularity of Bollywood ringtones. First, Indian cinema is gaining a new level of international popularity in other countries. Film lovers are discovering that Bollywood films have merits that makes them so compelling to watch. Lovers of kitsch, on the other hand, find Bollywood movies fantastical enough that it captures their attention.

The second reason for the popularity may also be attributable to it being such a peculiar yet cheeky way of having a ringtone. A bollywood ringtone on a person’s phone may paint a picture of that person as a lover of film and / or a person who has a sense of humor and loves to bring something unusual to his phone.

Customizing your mobile phone’s ringtone with a Bollywood ringtone shows that you are a person that is both a lover of culture but not afraid to poke a little fun at yourself. These qualities may be the reason that Bollywood ringtones are becoming such a popular choice among people.

Probably the most popular mobile phone customization accessory among all mobile phone users are MP3 ringtones. Hearing actual song snippets or live recordings of the voices of your favorite friends or family members never loses its appeal. Not only are mobile phone users addicted to it but also anyone who hears these pleasant sounds as well. An MP3 ringtone is so much more attractive and compelling to hear compared to the very artificial sounds of polyphonic and midi ringtones – which sound so robotic and are more at home as sounds that come out of microwave ovens or washing machines.

MP3 ringtones come in a dizzying array of forms. There are music ringtones available in all possible genres, dialogues taken from movies, humorous dialogues or parodies, sound effects, even the recorded voices of loved ones like your children or your wife or husband. By far, the most popular MP3 ringtone type though are music ringtones. There is just something especially cool when you hear your favorite song snippet announce that you have a phone call. A song also best describes your personality – romantics will opt to have love songs, artistic types may go for rock and lovers of nostalgia may decide to have standards or 50’s music as their ringtones.

Getting MP3 ringtones for your phone is so easy now. One of the most popular sources is the internet. There are so many websites that sell MP3 ringtones of the most popular songs as well as oldies for download. With just a few clicks of the mouse you can download an MP3 ringtone to your phone.

But what if the song that you are looking for is not available anywhere? The answer is quite simple. You can make your own MP3 ringtone using your own music.

Making your own MP3 ringtone from music found on a CD you own is relatively easy. You just need to download a few free applications online to help you convert an MP3 into a ringtone.

Here is a step by step guide for Windows users:

* The first thing you should do is to download a couple of freeware applications on the net. These are Audacity and Lame (along with the RazorLame GUI). These applications are widely available and can easily be found by using a search engine. After downloading and installing the applications we can go to the next step.

* Insert the CD you want to get the MP3 from and open the free Windows Media Player. Click on the RIP button and either rip the whole CD or the particular track into an MP3.

* Open the selected MP3 in Audacity and edit the song by selecting the portion of the song that you want to become your ringtone. It is up to you to decide how long you want to make your ringtone

* Select the last two seconds of your selected portion and put a fade out effect. This is an optional step.

* Export the selected MP3 portion as a WAV file.

* Open Lame and the RazorLame GUI and tweak the desired filesize and quality that you want.

* Add the WAV file to the Lame process, hit Encode and the finished product is your new personalized ringtone!

If your phone uses realtones, it is very easy to get them for free. A realtone is just a chunk of an mp3. So, basically, it is an mp3. And mp3s are very easy to come by these days. If you can get an mp3 of the ringtone you want, then you can get the ringtone you want as long as your phone uses realtones (or mp3s).

All you need to do is download an mp3 editor, cut out the chunk you want (unless your phone memory can handle the entire mp3), send it to your phone, and set it as your default ringtone. You should be able to accomplish this via email, bluetooth, or ftp.

If you have T-Mobile or another carrier which blocks you from using the full data transfering capabilities of your phone, they can't stop you from using bluetooth technology to get the ringtones to your phone. This is done by simply buying a bluetooth adapter for your computer and syncronizing it to your phone with the software which comes with the device.

As I mentioned earlier, if you have the memory available, you don't need to cut up the mp3; just send it to your phone and set it as your default ringtone.

Most people don't realize how easy its becoming to get free ringtones. Its about time you don't have to pay for your ringtones.