Not all sites ask you to pay for ringtones. It depends on their business model. Some sites are ad-supported but those who ask you to pay do it partly for profit, but also to cover the fees associated with sending a "Smart Message" to your phone or to cover copyright payments made to the copyright holder.

However, please do not necessarily assume that a site that charges you for ringtones necessarily pays copyright fees to the copyright owner - in fact, many don't pay copyright fees and still charge a fee to their users. Web sites paying copyright fees to the copyright owners usually clearly say so on their home page.

Ringtones found on this site ("About Cell Phones") are either of the public domain (classical music, national anthems), thus free of copyright, or composed by Martin Plante, our home ringtone artist, who gets paid copyright fees directly.