Gettin' "stuff" out of iTunes

[Clive Long]

Hi

Just bought Gotan Project Lunatico on iTunes (fantastic album).

Being one of those sad, sad people who are iPod-less I need to know how I can "suck" the album out of iTunes into mp3. Then I will knife and fork the tracks on to another device.

Advice, oh pointy-headed ones?


Clive

[Tiggerbabe]

I'm stripey, not pointy but............if you click on the selected track in iTunes and then go to "Advanced" in the menu tab at the top, there is an option to convert selection to MP3.

[Clive Long]

Originally Posted by Tiggerbabe

I'm stripey, not pointy but............if you click on the selected track in iTunes and then go to "Advanced" in the menu tab at the top, there is an option to convert selection to MP3.

Had a look.

I'm running iTunes 6.0.4

It only offers export to AAC.

Clive

[Clive Long]

OK.

I found the files - they have .m4p suffix.

A bit of Googling showed these are DRM protected AAC files (Apple format)

The only route to get the track son to an iRiver seems to be to burn an Mp3 or music CD then re-import that using my mp3 ripper.

Tedious.

Clive

[Tiggerbabe]

Originally Posted by Clive Long

I'm running iTunes 6.0.4

Me too, but I can definitely convert files to mp3

[Whitebeard]

Originally Posted by Clive Long

Had a look.

I'm running iTunes 6.0.4

It only offers export to AAC.

Clive

My version us 6.0.4.2 and does have import options. The route is:

Edit/Preferences/Advanced/Importing/Import using ..... (choose)

The other one.

[Whitebeard]

Originally Posted by Tiggerbabe

Me too, but I can definitely convert files to mp3

Go to Library and select a track then click Advanced. You should see an option to 'Convert to X' ....... X being the Import option selected in my previous post.

Hope it works for you.

Clive the clever one (Oh no, definitely, no.)

[Gary]

Originally Posted by Whitebeard

Go to Library and select a track then click Advanced. You should see an option to 'Convert to X' ....... X being the Import option selected in my previous post.

Hope it works for you.

Clive the clever one (Oh no, definitely, no.)

The "convert to mp3" option might only be available for songs which you ripped yourself, and probably is not available for songs downloaded from the iTunes Store.

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by Clive Long

I found the files - they have .m4p suffix.

A bit of Googling showed these are DRM protected AAC files (Apple format)

The only route to get the tracks on to an iRiver seems to be to burn an Mp3 or music CD then re-import that using my mp3 ripper.

I'm not sure you can burn them as an MP3 CD, but yeah, the easiest way to do both the removal of the DRM protection, and convert them to MP3 is to burn them to a CD and rip them back...

If the music industry had its way, this would not be allowed at all. (Without paying for the privilege.)

[clevedonboy]

Originally Posted by Clive Long

Hi

Just bought Gotan Project Lunatico on iTunes (fantastic album).

Being one of those sad, sad people who are iPod-less I need to know how I can "suck" the album out of iTunes into mp3. Then I will knife and fork the tracks on to another device.

Advice, oh pointy-headed ones?


Clive

If you haven't upgraded to iTunes 6 or higher then Jhymn can convert the files to mp3 - unfortunately it won't work with 6 or higher.

For non iPod players it may be worth considering making purchases from other online providers like Napster who use WMA (easy to convert if necessary)

[Clive Long]

Originally Posted by clevedonboy

If you haven't upgraded to iTunes 6 or higher then Jhymn can convert the files to mp3 - unfortunately it won't work with 6 or higher.

For non iPod players it may be worth considering making purchases from other online providers like Napster who use WMA (easy to convert if necessary)

Silly me.

I downloaded another album using Virgin music store and that produced WMA. I never thought of converting from that format.

Duh!

CRL

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by clevedonboy

For non iPod players it may be worth considering making purchases from other online providers like Napster who use WMA (easy to convert if necessary)

But then it's protected WMA, and won't play on all "digital music players", without first being converted into MP3. Is there an easy way to convert from protected WMA to MP3 without burning a CD?

[Tiggerbabe]

Originally Posted by Gary

The "convert to mp3" option might only be available for songs which you ripped yourself, and probably is not available for songs downloaded from the iTunes Store.

This is why I never reply to the geeky stuff, I'm happily working on my Powerbook G4 and I download most of the music I buy from iTunes and I do have the option to convert it to mp3.
I don't, because I play my music through my iPod, my pboco using iTunes or if I'm dj-ing using Megaseg

[Clive Long]

Originally Posted by Tiggerbabe

This is why I never reply to the geeky stuff, I'm happily working on my Powerbook G4 and I download most of the music I buy from iTunes and I do have the option to convert it to mp3.
I don't, because I play my music through my iPod, my pboco using iTunes or if I'm dj-ing using Megaseg

Moral: shoulda-boughta-iPod

[clevedonboy]

Originally Posted by ducasi

But then it's protected WMA, and won't play on all "digital music players", without first being converted into MP3. Is there an easy way to convert from protected WMA to MP3 without burning a CD?

good point... not necessarily legally.

but there is also quite a long list of players that can do drm protected wma - I don't know what Clive has but it might be on this list:
http://www.napster.co.uk/compatible_...ompatible.html

[jezzyjj]

Originally Posted by Clive Long

OK.

I found the files - they have .m4p suffix.

A bit of Googling showed these are DRM protected AAC files (Apple format)

The only route to get the track son to an iRiver seems to be to burn an Mp3 or music CD then re-import that using my mp3 ripper.

Tedious.

Clive

Buy a CD instead, much better quality, probably cheaper,even comes with artwork and nice packaging and far easier to imort onto your iRiver. And if you use Audio Grabber it will even name the tracks for you as you do it.
Apple are currently being taken to court by the French to allow iTunes tracks to play on players other than iPods.

[Martin]

Originally Posted by jezzyjj

Buy a CD instead, much better quality, probably cheaper,even comes with artwork and nice packaging and far easier to imort onto your iRiver.

Um, I think you may have missed the point

Talking about computer down-loads.

Any relevant software suggestions?

[Martin]

Originally Posted by clevedonboy

If you haven't upgraded to iTunes 6 or higher then Jhymn can convert the files to mp3 - unfortunately it won't work with 6 or higher.

And the link is
http://www.hymn-project.org/jhymndoc/

[jezzyjj]

Originally Posted by Martin

Um, I think you may have missed the point

Talking about computer down-loads.

Any relevant software suggestions?

I was fully aware of that, my tongue was partially in cheek, but for some people that quaint old fashioned way would be actually easier. You can listen to tunes off CDs b4 buying them online too.
What you can do alternatively is play your file and simply record it as it is playing thru iTunes, though you may have to make sure only your player is being recorded and not your system sounds and alerts other wise every time you play a track you'll think you've got mail.

I tried iTunes a while back and it caused more damage than any virus I've ever come across as it decided to reorganise my filing system, without warning me. So Be aware of this. Luckily I don't trust any software so tested it on just one folder out of about 30-40, so it only took me a day to fix. A bit arrogant to assume no other software will be accessing my music files.
The only potential reason for doing this as far as I can think is to prevent you using other software, just like they try and trap you into iTunes+iPod.
I refuse to use products that lock you in. Esp as Apple drops support for it's older products/software every few years. I know peeps who keep an old OS9 Mac running as they cannot afford to upgrade all their software to run on a new Mac. Imagine how pissed off you'd be if you finally gave in and replaced it with new stuff that then doesn't work [without Rosetta] on the new MacIntels

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by jezzyjj

I tried iTunes a while back and it caused more damage than any virus I've ever come across as it decided to reorganise my filing system, without warning me. So Be aware of this. Luckily I don't trust any software so tested it on just one folder out of about 30-40, so it only took me a day to fix. A bit arrogant to assume no other software will be accessing my music files.

I've heard this sort of argument before... I don't understand it personally...

iTunes offers to search your disk and copy music files into its library when it is run for the first time. I believe it leaves the originals where it found them. But it asks you before it does this.

Likewise, later you can add folders to iTunes library, where it again copies files.

To make its library easy to browse it organises titles by artist and album, and names the file based on the track number and title – this means that they will be in the correct order when you are browsing through Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (Mac.)

If you don't want it to copy files into its library, that is a preference. Also, if you don't want it to create the artist and album folders, and rename the files, then that is a preference too.

Originally Posted by jezzyjj

The only potential reason for doing this as far as I can think is to prevent you using other software, just like they try and trap you into iTunes+iPod.

Or because it's useful?

Originally Posted by jezzyjj

I refuse to use products that lock you in.

I hope you don't use any Microsoft software then!

Originally Posted by jezzyjj

Esp as Apple drops support for it's older products/software every few years. I know peeps who keep an old OS9 Mac running as they cannot afford to upgrade all their software to run on a new Mac. Imagine how pissed off you'd be if you finally gave in and replaced it with new stuff that then doesn't work [without Rosetta] on the new MacIntels

If they've just bought a new PowerPC Mac, and compatible software, presumably they were happy when they bought it. What has changed? I assume they can't afford a second new Intel Mac, so it doesn't matter if their new software doesn't run so well on it.