Verizon’s VZW Tones Utility Helps You Personalize Your Cell Phone Ring Tones

And if you’re just now wanting to go ring tone shopping for a change, you’re not the only one who ever got started with ring tone downloads these days.

In fact, it seems like everybody’s doing the ring tone grab-and-dash these days. Whether it’s a classic clip of an Elvis hit or a recent chart-topper from the Black-Eyed Peas, ring tones are one of the hottest phone customizations since custom face-plates and the ever-handy leather case with the built-in belt clip.

And the funny part is, media pundits never saw ring tones as becoming anything more than a ‘one time and then forget it’ deal. Now, it’s a major business for both cell phone carriers and independent ring tone outlets.

But most cell phone ring tone vendors only carry polyphonic tones that sound more like an instrumental version of your favorite songs. So what if you want a clip of the real thing blaring out of your phone when your friends start calling you?

Thankfully, it’s relatively easy, if you happen to use Verizon Wireless as your mobile phone service. Verizon’s excellent Get it Now service makes it a snap to find true-sound ring tones of your choosing, straight from the actual songs.

And all you have to know is where to look. Fortunately, Verizon’s VZWTones utility takes all the guesswork out of finding the ring tone you’re looking for.

To get started with VZWTones, you first need to download the utility into your cell phone. To do this, open your phone’s menu system (the make and model determine how you do this, so check the manual for your phone) and locate the Get it Now option. (Some phones, like the LG VX6000, have a dedicated key that opens the Get it Now section of the menu and take you straight to the Get it Now home screen; if not, you may have to use the Get Apps function or similar from the Get it Now section of the menu if the Get it Now home screen doesn’t appear.)

Next, choose the shopping cart icon or whatever your phone manual says will get you into the Get it Now shop. (IMPORTANT: This will connect you to Verizon’s calling network over a special connection, as the act of using the VZWTones utility to shop for ring tones will also do; although you’re just shopping, you may incur air time charges during the process depending on your calling plan, so you might want to wait for evening – or the weekend – if you have night/weekend allowances for air time that do not affect your weekday air time rate. And don’t say I didn’t warn you when the bill arrives!) Now, navigate to Get Tones, then to True Tones, then choose VZW Tones Deluxe (the latest version, currently in Beta the last I checked – which means, in software terms, that some unfinished rough spots are hanging around in the utility’s code base). Confirm the download and wait for the software to install itself. Once complete, you can start the utility and start shopping immediately. (You won’t be charged for ring tones until you actually buy one, so the utility download itself is free for ‘window shopper’s’ use.)

If you declined to start VZWTones upon installation success, or if you haven’t gone ring tone shopping for a while, repeat the steps you took to get to the Get it Now home screen if you’re not already there on your phone, but this time DO NOT OPEN THE GET IT NOW SHOP. From now on, you only need to start VZW Tones Deluxe to connect to Verizon’s system to shop for ring tones (again, note the IMPORTANCE of ensuring you have ample air time allowance to proceed without overage charges, etc.) To do this, choose the VZW Tones Deluxe item from the Get it Now home screen. Once the connection process is complete, you may be asked if you wish to buy a value pack of two or four ring tones for approx. $5.50 or $10.00, respectively. If you do, make your selection and choose Buy; otherwise, choose No Thanks. Then choose Continue on the following screen to get to the VZWTones home page.

You can now shop for ring tones by featured downloads, hot tracks, new additions, or just by browsing. Your best bet is to use the Browse function, so choose option four. You can now choose the category you want to browse. For example, if you’re a phat rap dude, choose Rap/Hip-Hop; if you’re more into the heavy beat of AC/DC, choose Metal. If more than ten choices are available, and none match your interests, choose More to display other possibilities.

Once you’ve chosen a category, navigate to your selection to see selections that match your criteria. Again, if more than ten items are found, choose More to keep browsing. It takes time to browse this way, doesn’t it? So, if you’re still having trouble, press the up key on your phone until the Search button is highlighted, and navigate to that. Then choose what you want to search for, whether it’s a specific song by title, a specific artist (read: Elvis, the Bee Gees, etc.), or the ID number of the ring tone if you know what it is (which is too advanced for the scope of this article). You probably know one of the first two options, so choose whichever one you know more of.

For our example, we’ll choose the king of rock-and-roll, a.k.a. Elvis Presley. So choose Artist from the ‘search by’ list, and confirm. Then enter “Elvis P” (‘P’ for Presley, and all without the quotes) into your phone and choose Search. Now we just need to choose a track to download a clip of for our ring tone. We’ll select “Burning Love” as our choice.

You can now purchase the ring tone, or preview it first. I’d suggest you preview how it sounds first, so choose option two. If you like what you hear, choose Purchase to display the cost. Choose Get It to confirm the purchase, and wait for the download to complete. Once done, you can listen again (if you didn’t preview before, BUT NOW YOU DON’T GET A REFUND IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT – just so you know why we had you preview the ring tone). You can now set the ring tone as the default if you wish, or just return to where you started by choosing the Continue option. You can now disconnect from the VZW Tones application by pressing the End button on your phone, or by backing out until you’ve closed the Get it Now service session and all menus above it.

Now wasn’t that easy? One final note, however: not all phones have the capability to use this kind of ring tone, so don’t be surprised if these procedures didn’t work for you. But if they did – well, now you can enjoy ring tones on your Verizon Wireless-based cell phone with incredible ease.

And now, you too are playing the ring tone customization game. Explore, download and enjoy!