Can Spotify or Apple Music songs become ringtones?

Apple Music: check the file’s status

The Music app can contain different kinds of audio: music you imported, purchases and subscription tracks. The fact that a song appears there does not tell you whether it can be used in another editor. Apple documents that GarageBand imports only unprotected songs stored locally. A dimmed item can be unavailable locally or protected.

Spotify: offline is for service playback

Spotify’s downloads support listening within its service. Do not treat an offline playlist as a folder of MP3 files ready for a ringtone editor. Buying a subscription does not add a general audio-export button to your phone’s ringtone settings.

Use a source you can actually import

A recording you made, an unprotected audio export you are allowed to use, or a finished ringtone obtained through the app’s supported flow is a better starting point. Play the file locally, check that it imports, then trim the excerpt. Changing an extension or screen-recording around a restriction is not the workflow described here.

Alarms are a separate case

Google’s Clock app supports certain music-service integrations for alarms, subject to account and service requirements. That does not turn the same song into a system call ringtone or an exportable file. Choose the alarm’s service tab if that is the outcome you want, and test the alarm before relying on it.

For a ringtone, finish the phone’s actual sound-selection step after exporting. For an alarm, select the sound inside that alarm. Those two destinations should not be treated as interchangeable.

Related guides

• Which audio files work for custom ringtones?
• Use a custom sound for your phone alarm
• Make a ringtone from a voice recording
• How to set a ringtone from the iTunes Store
• Turn a saved video into a ringtone, including your own YouTube clips