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[How to]: Change Your Ringback Tone

You know that sappy piano music everybody has to hear when they call your cell phone? Here's how to get rid of it and replace it with good tunes.
Last updated: 2015-11-09
From the directly and minutely useful to information on living your best self in the world. How To is our regular column on how to accomplish things in the city.


While callers are waiting for you to fish out your phone, chances are they have to listen to Richard Clayderman’s “L for Love”, also known as “the sad piano song”. With a little effort, we can get Clayderman to “S for Shut the Fuck Up”, replacing his morose tinkling with something more upbeat.

A great, underutilized service is the ability to change your caller ringback tone. China Mobile and China Unicom both have large libraries of music to choose from, and it’s pretty cheap at 2–5 RMB per month. I’ve had Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain” for a while now. Apropos.

Both companies’ English websites offer only corporate information, with the useful services all in Chinese. Fair warning, like most seemingly simple things, they've managed to complicate the process with loads of unnecessary steps. But if you've lived in China for any amount of time this really shouldn't surprise you, should it? Either way, don’t let that stop you.

China Mobile Users





Browse to Migu (咪咕音乐), China Mobile's music site. If you're reading this article, it's safe to say that you don't have a Migu account. To create one, click "注册" ("sign up") in the upper right corner of the screen. You'll be directed to a screen with spaces to fill in. They follow the same basic protocol you'll find when signing up for any other website. Fill them in accordingly:

手机号码: Mobile phone number
用户名: Username
密码: Password
确认密码: Confirm password
短信验证码: SMS confirmation code (click the button to the right and you'll receive this momentarily)

Once that's all filled out, click the orange button that says "完成" ("complete").
Return to the home page and click "登录" ("log in") in the upper right corner of the screen. Fill out the form with your phone number and your password. Click on your username, and then choose "彩铃管理" by the bell icon on the left of the page to open the service.

Okay. You still with me? Good.

Now you can enter a song, artist or album name in the search bar. English is fine for international artists. There is a surprisingly huge selection of tracks by both domestic and international acts—we're talking everything from Barry Manilow to Megadeth and quite a few in between, too. Yes, Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” is there, but you’re better than that.

When you’ve got your search results, click play to listen. If you’re satisfied with the track, click the tiny bell icon to set it as your ringback tone. To confirm your purchase, you’ll be taken to yet another confirmation page. There is a captcha code function there to prove that you're not spam bot. It'll give you a simple addition (加) or subtraction (乘) problem to solve. You'll also need yet another verification code via SMS ("短信验证码"). Click the blue button to the right, and you'll receive that on your phone. Once everything is filled out, click the orange button. If the song is available, you're good to go. Not every song is available for use as a ringback tone. You'll know you've selected an available song when you receive an SMS with a bunch of Chinese characters and your song title in English. The service costs around 5rmb per month and renews automatically unless you cancel it.

China Unicom Users





The process is pretty similar over at China Unicom. Head straight to their music service 沃音乐 at sh.10155.com and hit 注册 in the top right corner of the page to enroll, or if you’ve already done so, 登录 to sign in. Enter your phone number, the captcha and click the button below to receive a confirm code via SMS.

Enter your artist, song or album search in the search bar, and select it from the results. That should bring up a black and orange player. On the right hand side is a button that says "设为炫铃" ("set up ringback tone").

The options beginning with "下载" are for purchasing downloads of the song. To set it as your ring tone, click the top option, "订购." If you can’t see that option, the song isn’t available as a ringback tone.

If you get annoyed with your searches not turning up any valid "ringback" tones, try clicking on "排行榜" for the top charts, then, in the left hand column, "欧美音乐" for European and American artists, or 日韩音乐 for Japanese and Korean acts. It's in the "欧美" charts that I found Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe” (2rmb/month) and set it as my roommate’s ringback tone without telling her. This is crazy.

The first time you load up a song the site will ask you to open the service. Agree, agree, agree.

Tetrapalegic Astrophysicists



In addition to music, China Mobile and China Unicom let you use voice bots to read a message of your own devising as your ringback tone. On the Migu home page, hover over 彩铃 (ringback tone) and click on 个性彩铃. In the text box, type whatever you want read aloud in English or Chinese. There are ten different voices to choose from, including one called Qian Jie, who performed this gloriously fobby version of De La Soul’s "Ring Ring Ring".

The China Unicom robot voices can be found here.

TELL EVERYONE