How to Use a Purchased iTunes Song as Your iPhone Alarm
You bought that song years ago, and you still like it. It can wake you up tomorrow. There are three ways to get it there, and they differ in where the song starts and how reliably it plays.
Quick answer: In the built-in Clock app, download the song to your iPhone, then edit an alarm, tap Sound, and choose Pick a song. It always starts from the beginning, and a song that is not downloaded rings with the default tone instead. To start at the chorus, turn the song into a ringtone in GarageBand. Or import the song file into Alarm Clock Planner: it keeps its own copy, so it plays every time, and you choose which 30 seconds wake you.
Will your song work?
It depends on where the song came from:
- Bought on the iTunes Store since April 2009: works everywhere on this page. These are iTunes Plus files, 256 kbps AAC with no copy protection, ending in .m4a.
- Bought before 2009: older purchases were sold with copy protection and end in .m4p. GarageBand and other apps cannot open those.
- From an Apple Music subscription: the Clock app can play it while you subscribe. It is protected, so it cannot become a ringtone or a file, and it stops working as an alarm if the subscription ends.
- Ripped from a CD, or bought as an MP3 elsewhere: a plain audio file, so it works like a purchase.
Set a song as an alarm in the Clock app
- Make sure the song is downloaded to your iPhone: in the Music app, find it in your library (bought songs are under Purchased) and tap Download.
- Open Clock, tap Alarms, and tap the alarm you want to change, or the add button for a new one.
- Tap Sound, then Pick a song, and choose it from your library.
- Go back and save the alarm.
Two catches. The song always plays from its first second, so a slow intro is what wakes you. And if the song is not stored on the phone when the alarm goes off, for example because the Music app removed downloads to free up space, the alarm rings with the default tone instead. People have run into that one for years.
Start at the chorus: make it a ringtone in GarageBand
The Clock app lists your ringtones as alarm sounds, so a ringtone cut from the song starts wherever you want. Apple's free GarageBand app does it on the iPhone:
- Open GarageBand, start a new song with any instrument, and switch to Tracks view.
- Tap the Loops button, open the Music tab, and drag your song into the tracks. A dimmed song is protected or not downloaded.
- Trim it to the part you want, 30 seconds at most.
- Go to My Songs, press and hold the project, tap Share, and choose Ringtone.
- Back in Clock, the ringtone is in the alarm's Sound list.
It works, but it takes a few minutes per song and the steps move around between GarageBand versions.
Import the song into Alarm Clock Planner
In Alarm Clock Planner the song becomes the alarm's own sound file. The app keeps a copy, so it never depends on a download or a subscription, and it rings with your song every time. You need the song as a file once.
Step 1: Get the song file on your Mac
- Open the Music app. If the song is not on this Mac yet, find it under Account > Purchased and download it.
- Click Songs in the sidebar and select the song.
- Choose File > Show in Finder. The .m4a file is now selected in a Finder window.
On a Windows PC the same purchase downloads in the Apple Music app or iTunes; move it to your iPhone through iCloud Drive on icloud.com.
Step 2: Move it to your iPhone
- iCloud Drive: drag the file into iCloud Drive in Finder. A moment later it appears in the Files app on your iPhone.
- AirDrop: right-click the file, choose Share > AirDrop, and pick your iPhone. When the iPhone asks where to open it, choose Files.
Step 3: Pick the 30 seconds that wake you (optional)
The app skips any silence at the start and plays up to 30 seconds. To start at the chorus, open the song in QuickTime Player on your Mac, choose Edit > Trim, drag the yellow handles around the part you want, then choose File > Export As > Audio Only and move that file instead.
Step 4: Add it as a sound
- In Alarm Clock Planner, create or edit an alarm and open the sound list.
- Tap Add custom sound and pick the file in Files.
- The song now sits next to the built-in tones. Use it for one alarm, a whole group, or as your default.
No Mac? Do it on the iPhone with GarageBand
The Music app does not hand songs to other apps as files, but GarageBand does. Follow the GarageBand steps above, and at the end choose Share > Song instead of Ringtone, then save it to Files. That file imports into Alarm Clock Planner like any other, already trimmed to the part you chose.
Wake up to a song you own
Import any purchased song as an alarm sound that plays every time. Free for up to 3 alarms.
