Ringtones

Last night, I thought I would christen my new iPhone and get a decent ringtone. After quite a lot of deliberation, I managed to narrow my extensive iTunes library down to a couple of choices and then set about finding out how to go about setting a song I own as my ringtone.

With all the gadgets you can get for the iPhone, how difficult could it be?

Well, it turns out that the powers that be over at Apple don't want you choosing just about any song that you already own, oh no, that just wouldn't do. There are only certain songs you can set as a ringtone, and guess what, none of them are on the thousands of CD's you spent month's uploading.

After sifting through the songs that I could actually use as a ringtone, I found nothing suitable. It's quite a difficult thing to choose one song that shows you're the fun loving, young hipster who's just too cool for school, as well as the professional Manager trying to get his group to actually do the job they're paid to do.

Defeated, I realised the only way I was going to get a song that I wanted as my ringtone would be to actually buy the song again on iTunes. I know what you're thinking...that's not such a big deal, and maybe you'd be right, except that's only half the story.

Once you've purchased the song (again), you then have to buy the ringtone version! So now in order to get 15 seconds of a song to make my phone recognisable to me above a busy office of dum dum dums and dee dee dees I've paid for the bloody thing 3 times!

If you're interested, I finally settled on FEAR by Ian Brown, extending the ringtone to an almost album length 20 seconds so I feel like I'm at least getting something extra from the corporate fruits over at Apple.

If you're not down with the kids like me, Ian Brown was the lead singer in the Stone Roses, one of my all time favourite bands. FEAR is a proper tune. One that could only be written by a Manc. The song features only words beginning with the letters F.E.A.R. For example, it starts off with "For Each A Road, For Everyman A Religion." It has strings and everything, and the video features Brownie on his bike rewinding through the streets. Proper attitude. Check it out.