Provided are an apparatus and a method for processing a ringtone in a wireless terminal. Position data of sound source samples corresponding to ringtone contents are extracted in advance and then used to play the ringtone. Musical score data are parsed from ringtone contents, and position data of the sound source samples corresponding to the parsed musical score data are extracted and stored in a database. Instead of parsing the sound source samples each time, by storing the position data of the sound source samples corresponding to the musical score data in a database, system load can be reduced during a real time playback of a ringtone.