Ringtone Download Services Review

Your cell phone is one of the most personal devices you carry around with you. It makes sense that you want to personalize it as much as possible, and your ringtone selection is one way to make your phone reflect your personality. Most cell phone manufacturers let you choose from only about a dozen preprogrammed ringtones. When you download a ringtone, you're making your cell phone more intimate and personal. Ringtone download services offer a wealth of ringtone options that make your cell phone truly unique. With so many options to choose from, you'll be able to find a custom ringtone for every contact in your digital phonebook.

We rated and ranked the best ringtone download services available. At the end of our research iTunes, Myxer and Thumbplay earned the TopTenREVIEWS Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, respectively, for excellence in this category. Each of these services has just the right mixture of features, selection and compatibility that put them above the rest of the competition. We have also posted informative articles about ringtone download services.

Despite a wealth of ringtone options, even the best ringtone sites may not have exactly the tone you're looking for, so the best sites provide tools that allow you to make your own ringtones from a local band or even from music you have created yourself. There's nothing more personal than a ringtone you make yourself.

Ringtone Download Services: What to Look For

When you're looking for the latest ringtones, there are a few things you should know about a service before you give them your credit card or allow them to add charges onto your phone bill. The following are the categories on which we rated each category.

Features
One of the most critical things for any ringtone download service is quick and effective search features. If the search features are subpar, you may spend several minutes searching for your ringtone rather than seconds. Search fields and category listings are crucial to search functions; if a service is missing one or both of these features, it makes it nigh unto impossible to find the ringtone you want.

Take care that you select a service that provides all the album art and metadata for the ringtones you download. Metadata includes information such as song title, artist, album and more. This may seem like a small thing. However, if you ever want to transfer your tones to another phone, this information is invaluable for identifying the files you need to find.

Selection
A comprehensive library of sounds, songs and voice files is essential to any ringtone download service. The most popular ringtones are songs, both from the newest artists or renditions of old favorites. In addition to song ringtones, the best ringtone download services offer a wealth of sound effect ringtones. You might, for example, simply want the sound of an old fashioned rotary phone with an actual bell. The best download services have all these ringers and more.

Compatibility & Billing
For the most part, you'll be downloading these ringtones directly to your mobile phone and the service will bill you through your phone carrier. A solid service is compatible with the main carriers, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. T-Mobile and Virgin should be included, too. Some services are even compatible with regional carriers. Not all services bill you through your carrier; instead, they require you to enter credit card information. Most of the best services offer both options.

Ease of Use
If a website or service is difficult to navigate it can add a lot of time to your search for a new ringtone. Ideally, you should be able to find, preview and download your new ringtone in less than two minutes. A site's intuitive navigation structure is crucial in this category.

Help & Support
These sites should provide sufficient customer support to help you find answers to questions and resolve any technical problems. The best ringtone download services offer phone and email support as well as knowledge bases and FAQ sections.

Whether you're looking for a mobile version of the Macarena or the ringtone from 24, the best ringtone download services stand ready to help you personalize your phone quickly and easily.

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