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How to Download iTunes Store Previews and Use Them As Ringtones – UPDATED AND WORKING

Ok, so we know how to use your own ripped CD’s as ringtones on your iPhone but here is an updated way to download and use iTS previews with your iPhone – AKA FREE RINGTONES of your favorite songs.

Now, this isn’t for the feint of heart. It requires command-line access and Perl and only works on OS X.

  • You’ll need to download the software: Fetchalbum and DumpURLS. Fetchalbum can also be compiled from source here and dumpurls is simply a text file, which you can read through. Make both fetchalbum and dumpurls executable. Place both items in the same folder. Dumpurls calls fetchalbum.
  • Find an album URL: In the iTunes store, right-click (control-click) on the name of the album in the area above the song listings and choose Copy iTunes Store URL from the pop-up. Do not do this on individual songs; this will only on Albums.
  • Run dumpurls: Run dumpurls with one argument, the single-quoted URL from the itunes store. For example:
    ./dumpurls 'http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=259019334&s=143441'
  • Now wait: It might take a few minutes or two to download the previews associated with the album.
  • Load into iTunes: Thanks to Apple you can’t simply rename the file as a .m4r, so just name it anything you can find and add it to your iTunes library.
  • Sync the newly created to your iPhone.
  • Use SendSong (Which can be found here) to install your preview into ~/Library/Ringtones on your iPhone.

It’s not easy, but its the only way to create absolutely free ringtones.


  • Justin

    Very cool!

  • nick

    Its a lot easier to use audio hijack pro to record the itunes store previews, and then sync it onto the iPhone using iToner.

  • Justin

    You link is broken for dumpurls.pl :(

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