Music ringtones, a newer version of ringtones, contain either actual pieces of music backed by lyrics or the entire song with music and singers. Most of the cell phone manufacturers like Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson are including even voice ringtones along with music on their new generation cell phones.

Cell phone users often change their ringtone weekly, but they should be sure to check the compatibility of the ringtone before purchasing.

Music ringtones are generally in MP3, WMA, WAV or AMR format. MP3 is a very compressed format, which represents pulse-code modulated (PCM) audio data in the smaller size by discarding some portions that are less important to the human ear. There are a number of techniques like psychoacoustics for determining which portions of the audio feed are to maintained or discarded in MP3 format. MP3 format ensures a tradeoff between data size and sound quality. More modern than MP3 is MPEG-4 format, which includes Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) that increases sound clarity of the music ringtone. Some of the music ringtones are downloadable from different websites for a fee.

Music ringtones plays a vital role in the music industry. In the U.S., revenues of $4 billion dollars was recorded from ringtones during 2004