A cell phone user can download polyphonic ringtones to his handset from various sources like the Internet, other cell phone users, ringtone providers, etc. Most of the ringtone providers offer downloading of ringtones for a charge. The ringtone providers need to pay royalties to the recording companies for the original tune and spend money for the coding of the ringtone. Moreover, they have to pay the network provider to make the ringtones available for the end-users.

Polyphonic ringtones can easily be pirated, as they can be transferred easily via infrared transfer through the network or by manually coding the notes in phone with a composer. Free polyphonic ringtones, the first choice of every end-user, are the most popular. The reason, obviously, is that that they are free. Paid polyphonic ringtones are available from a number of ringtone providers. Most of the premium providers charge much more for polyphonic ringtones than for monophonic ringtones. However, there are some who provide cheap polyphonic ringtones.

Web.tiscali.it has thousands of cheap polyphonic ringtones in its database. The site adds hundreds of new tones every week, and the tones are available for nominal prices. Another site, www.plusone.com, is treasure of high quality affordable ringtones; www.comparestoreprices.co.uk offers the lowest of prices among all of the polyphonic ringtone providers. Another major provider of inexpensive polyphonic ringtones is www.gaiaworld.com.

For a mobile phone user, the most inexpensive way to acquire a polyphonic ringtone is via infrared transfer. It costs him/her nothing but a little power. Conversion software available on the Internet allows a user to convert mp3, wave, and MIDI files to cell phone polyphonic ringtone or to compose his own polyphonic ringtone on a PC. These tones can be transferred to the phone using a data cable or IR port.