In general, Ringtone submissions follow the same guidelines and restrictions related to Album and Single submissions. In recent years Apple has been getting more strict and adherence to their rules is required for all Catapult users. Any content that is submitted as a Ringtone must comply with these rules and even if it passes Catapult's quality control systems and is delivered to Apple, they may at anytime take down any content that they deem to be not abiding with their guidelines or simply due to their own editorial discretion. If this happens, there is nothing that Catapult can do about it and further, there are no refunds on any setup fee(s) associated with a Ringtone submission that Apple takes down from their store.
The primary issue we see are with users attempting to submit sound effects as Ringtones. While the sound effects genre is certainly available as a genre, many users who attempt to submit these types of Ringtones also attempt to circumvent Apple's guidelines to try and increase their Ringtone's search-ability in their store. Attempts to increase a Ringtone's visibility by using keywords or other methods is not allowed and your content may be pulled from our service.
Below are the most important things to consider when submitting your Ringtone:
Ringtone Artist Names:
Ringtone artist names must be actual artist names. They cannot simply be a name that describes the underlying audio (ie: No, you cannot submit an artist name containing the word "Ringtone", "Ringtones"...or "Message Notification", etc. etc.). Many users attempt to "game" Apple's Ringtone store by trying to do this but it's a quick way to get your stuff banned or taken down from their store (or from our service). You may even see other content in their store that is doing this...but that doesn't mean it's allowed. It just means they haven't been caught by Apple's quality control systems yet.
Ringtone Titles:
Ringtone titles must be the actual title of the Ringtone and cannot use additional keywords to try and manipulate search results in the Apple ringtone store. Adding multiple descriptive keywords to your Ringtone title is not allowed and words such as "Ringtone", "Ringtones", "SMS", "Notification", "Tone", "Tones" are strictly prohibited.
Ringtone Cover Art:
Just like Albums and Singles, cover art for Ringtone's must be unique and cannot be reused for additional Ringtones.
Ringtones Submitted As Singles or Albums: Submitting short form audio content as a Single track album or as a collection of tracks on a Full album when the underlying audio is clearly meant to be a Ringtone is not allowed by Apple/iTunes and therefore we too do not allow it.