This may sound like a silly question, but, where do the songs go that you d/l from iTunes?

I ask this b/c my friend wants me to d/l some songs to put on a non-ipod mp3 player (i'm not sure what kind of player it is). Will iTunes let me copy the songs to a different player? I don't want to spend the money and then find that I can't do anything with the music

12/20/2007 8:36:15 PM

the files are stored in the iTunes Library folder. Go to iTunes Preferences to see where that is. On a normal Windows machine, it's probably in
My Documents > My Music > iTunes Library > [artist] > [album] > [song]

There are two types of files you can buy/download from iTunes
1) "normal" itunes files that all iTunes songs are available in. These are an Apple+iTunes+iPod proprietary format. You can only play them on iTunes and/or an iPod that the purchaser has authorized them to play on. A very easy, and legal/Apple sanctioned way to get around this is to burn the files you bought from iTunes to a CD-R or CD-RW. Just put in a CD-R, create a playlist with the songs you want, including any that you bought from iTunes, then hit the Burn CD button. It will create a normal audio CD that you can then take to any other computer and rip the songs into MP3 that can be played on any mp3 player

2) about 1/3rd of iTunes songs can also be purchased as "iTunes Plus" tracks, which are DRM free and can be easily transferred and played on any mp3 player. I think the songs should be labeled as such somewhere in the song info

12/20/2007 10:14:06 PM

this has been the most efficient tech talk thread ever...

12/20/2007 11:12:24 PM

^^ Correction on point 2:

Any MP3 player that can play AAC files.

12/20/2007 11:24:09 PM

The Sansa view players can and are reasonably priced- but I take it his friend already has a player. Do you know what model or if it can play AAC files?

12/20/2007 11:30:05 PM

there is also a program called myFairTunes that will strip the DRM from files purchased from the apple store. check it out.

12/21/2007 7:07:04 AM

nope, I'm not sure what kind of player it is. I'll find out today though.


agentlion: if the songs are not available in the "plus" format, and I choose to burn a cd with the songs, is it just a simple matter of putting the cd into any other computer (mine automatically uses iTunes to open music), plugging in the mp3 player, and dragging the songs from the cd file to the player?

12/21/2007 7:15:08 AM

^

Quote :

"there is also a program called myFairTunes that will strip the DRM from files purchased from the apple store. check it out."

12/21/2007 8:30:12 AM

^will it still allow me to play the songs on MY ipod? or does stripping the DRM somehow prevent me from uploading them to my player as well?

sorry for the questions...I'm just not sure how the whole mp3 thing works. obvious.

12/21/2007 8:48:39 AM

I just noticed that the new iTunes has a "convert selection to AAC"...

I guess that is one option, however, are these conversions something that can be "undone"?

12/21/2007 9:04:06 AM

Quote :

" if the songs are not available in the "plus" format, and I choose to burn a cd with the songs, is it just a simple matter of putting the cd into any other computer (mine automatically uses iTunes to open music), plugging in the mp3 player, and dragging the songs from the cd file to the player?"

yes, when you burn a CD from iTunes, that CD is just like a normal audio CD. You can play it in your car CD player, and if you put it in any other computer, you can pull the songs off of the CD (using iTunes or any other ripping program) and they are completely free and open files.

12/21/2007 11:32:18 AM