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 50s 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!