Digital Music Question
Okay, so I wanted to buy a song that's been in my head recently -- "Lucky Guy" by Ricki Lee Jones, if you must know. I downloaded iTunes to get it and apparently have successfully purchased it.
Now, I want to play it. As you may recall, all my music is stored digitally, and played via a wireless gizmo made by Creative. It uses proprietary Creative software to manage the music library. If someone sends me an .mp3 file (or, if, theoretically, I were to download music from the web) I have to import it into the Creative library so I can find it on the remote that controls the music emanating from the stereo.
Simple question: must I use iTunes to play songs I buy from the iTunes store? If so, I've just squandered 99 cents. (I suppose I could burn the song onto a CD, then upload it into my Creative library, which would be an enormous pain in the butt, since my CD burner is on the fritz.) If not, where does iTunes hide the music file, so I can grab it and import it into my Creative library?
UPDATE: What a kluge-y system. I'm all set, after burning the song onto CD and uploading it. I wish I could use the iTunes interface with my Creative remote control. Illegal downloads seem a lot easier. Would the RIAA still come after me if I paid 99 cents for songs I got on iTunes and then downloaded in mp3 format from LimeWire or some such?
The files you get from the iTunes Music Store (or ITMS, as those of us who love TLAs sometimes call it in an attempt to mystify the uninitiated and make ourselves feel like cool people who use excessively long parenthetical explanations) are encoded as AAC, I believe, which is a format which can only be played by iTunes.
The accepted workaround is to burn a music CD and then rip the CD as MP3s with your alternate music software. So your fears are correct.
Good thing you asked before you blew a few hundred bucks, right? :-)
Posted by: pjm | February 16, 2005 at 10:11 AM
The music files are in Users/yourusername/Music/iTunes/iTunesMusic
Posted by: wab | February 16, 2005 at 10:13 AM
What a huge pain in the butt.
Anyone out there happen to have "Lucky Guy" in mp3 format? Would it be illegal to send it to me? I'll buy you an iTunes song in exchange...
Posted by: Scheherazade | February 16, 2005 at 10:17 AM
Use JHymn. It will remove the protection from your iTunes purchases, and then you can use iTunes itself to convert those unprotected files to mp3 (I think you can just right-click and convert).
Posted by: ogged | February 16, 2005 at 12:37 PM
"Users/yourusername/Music/iTunes/iTunesMusic" is if you're on a Mac. If you're on a Windows machine (which it sounds like you are), you usually go to My Documents, and then the "My Music" folder in there. In that folder, you'll find the "iTunes" folder. That's where the AACs are located. But you don't really need to know where this is -- just burn to a CD then rip it back in. (You have to burn to disc using iTunes.) Then you have your own non-protected mp3s and no longer need the iTunes AACs.
This is why iTunes is not technically "good." Besides, you're paying $.99 / song or $9.99 / albuem for lower quality music then CDs.
Posted by: | February 16, 2005 at 01:38 PM
To 10:38AM -- She's actually paying $9.90 per album, you see. Because 10 songs * $0.99 = $9.90, not $9.99. Unless the album has 10.09090909... songs on it. Then you're right.
Posted by: Mr. Wizard | February 16, 2005 at 10:18 PM
You could actually play an AAC file on something other than iTunes, it's just that the format is so relatively new (and has not been adopted by Bill Gates) that it's taking other applications a while to add the ability to their players. Just think of an AAC file as the Apple equivalent of Microsoft's WMA file, which is also copy protected.
It's not all bad news though. AAC is really a remarkable format, much better than MP3. An AAC music file sounds richer than a MP3 file recorded at the same bitrate, and amazingly the AAC file will be slightly smaller that MP3 for the same recording. You would need a MP3 recorded at 160 or higher bitrate to equal the sound quality of a 128 bitrate AAC file at about 80% of the file size. Ok, so this doesn't help you listen to Ricki any sooner, but it's knowledge that might come in handy as the format popularity grows.
.
Posted by: Richard Ames | February 17, 2005 at 07:03 AM
Since you already have a Creative device, I recommend you steer clear of iTunes if you can. For the most part it's kludgy and will trap your music. Use your Creative MP3 player and just stick to the open MP3 format.
:)
Posted by: anthony | February 17, 2005 at 12:06 PM
I meant, use the Creative software (or any other MP3 software - WinAmp, WMP, whatever - most Creative MP3 devices will just show up as a removable disc drive and you can populate them with a simple file copy)
Posted by: anthony | February 17, 2005 at 12:08 PM
who sing the song lovers & friend before lil jon and usher, luderchis
Posted by: curtis | March 05, 2005 at 03:23 PM
It's interesting to how many people are buying from iTunes, burning to CD and then ripping back to MP3. If this becomes the norm (which probably already is) then it makes the who security issue a bit of a non-event. Maybe the end result will be files actually being sold as MP3 files in the first place.
Ivan
The iPod
Posted by: Ivan (The iPod) | March 28, 2005 at 04:05 PM
yeah, i heared this many days ago, but i just like Mp3 to CD Burner Pro
thanks to it!
http://www.yaodownload.com/audio-mp3/cdburners/mp3-to-cd-burner-pro_cdburner.htm
Posted by: rose | May 11, 2006 at 09:20 PM
i also like music, and usually download the latest ones at http://www.purchaseshareware.com
Posted by: music burner | August 07, 2006 at 09:14 PM