It's incredibly easy to now create your own ring tones for your iPhone without paying the 99c. Here are a few different ways to accomplish it.

1. Use GarageBand to load a track from CD or an MP3 file. Trim the song down to a reasonable length. If it's short, it's a good idea to loop it a few times and make sure the loop point sounds natural. Export the song as a “.M4A” via the share menu. Rename the file with the .M4R extension and drag into iTunes. Sync your iPhone.

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2. Use Quicktime Pro to edit/copy/paste the ring tone. Export as MPEG-4 audio. Rename the file with the .M4R extension and drag into iTunes. Sync your iPhone.

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3. Locate an existing song in your iTunes library that is .M4A format by right-clicking (or control-clicking) on the song and choose Show in Finder. Copy the song to your desktop and rename the file with the .M4R extension and drag into iTunes. Sync your iPhone.