Be Excellent To Each Other

I want to buy the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album off iTunes, it's £9.99 for the bonus track version, which I'm entirely happy with.

Thing is though, what will I end up with?

I want basic, simple MP3s that I can burn to a CD for me in the car, copy over to Mrs Atrocity's (really must change my username) MP3 player, and also add to the big fat collection of MP3s on my 'data farm' (old PC with a couple of big hard drives in it sharing its arse out to my home network).

I can see no obvious mention of file format, DRM, bitrate, or anything else in the iTunes Store, just a tempting 'BUY NOW' button, I know Apple have some crazy-arsed proprietary file format but I did hear talk of them ditching it 'cause everyone hates DRM, has that actually happened yet?

I'm very much a newbie to iTunes (it's only installed at all (on my second PC) 'cause my iPhone insisted on it) - so if anyone could advise what files I'll end up with for my £9.99 I'd appreciate it

I could be completely wrong as I've never bought anything from iTunes, but my understanding is that you'll get a bunch of files with DRM in them, but you can choose to burn them to a cd and then reimport them as DRM free tracks.

I am this very minute downloading a Renegade Soundwave album so can report back on the morrow as that's one I want for the car.

You will get AAC format (which is owned by Yamaha, not Apple, and is not proprieatary) with or without DRM depending on if it's "iTunes Plus" or not (which varies with record label).

Virtually everything is DRM-free now, but you better check it's iTunes Plus.

Actualy, I've checked and it is.

THE GREAT EXPERIMENT is underway, £9.99p has been handed over to Apple, I'll see what I get at the end of it.

Since iTunes is only installed on my second PC and Mrs Atrocity's laptop, at the very least I'll be wanting some files that I can copy over to my PC - (which hosts the 'master' music collection as backups are propagated from there) - so I can listen to the album via WinAmp or WMP or suchlike.

You are going to get DRM-free mp4 files containing AAC codec data. They'll play in any iTunes and, I imagine, anywhere you install the right codecs.

If you want mp3 you should check out amazons collection, they have quite alot of album downloads for 3 quid. album in question is only 8 quid there aswell.

M4A (the AAC format iTunes uses) is so commonplace nowadays that programs like Winamp support it by default. And it shouldn't be too difficult to burn to CD either (I'm assuming you mean an actual "Audio CD", rather than a "Data CD" with MP3s stuck on it like what some CD players support).

Hmmm I appear to have got a load of M4A files that Quicktime will play but nothing else wants anything to do with, as opposed to the other 99.9% of my music collection which is MP3s, that, y'know, anything will play quite happily. (And I had to install Quicktime just to be able to listen to the M4A files on my main PC.)

Massively unimpressed, last track/album purchase from me until the Apple Store just does MP3s like the rest of the world.

I actively want the M4A cancer out of my music collection, the new YYY album is fantastic, but I can't get to terms with me handing over a tenner and Apple bending me over and fucking me up the arse whilst demanding 'Where's my tenner then?' - fuck off, cunts.

Meh I don't like M4A it makes me itchy. I'm still on Winamp V2.80, since it plays everything I like, even SID files with a plugin. I'm going to revert to being a base Windows lover and therefore inherently hate everything with an Apple sticker on it, even real apples, which I will no longer eat because they are BAD.

When I look out of my WINDOW (good) I see an APPLE tree (BAD) and know that there is hatred within me.

The circle is squared, normal business can resume. Thank you drive through.

I found a plugin that works with Winamp V2.X, I'm a bit less upset now.

But still pretty unhappy, mind.

Looking around, you would've realised that wasn't really a necessity.

AAC is wildly better than mp3 in terms of audio quality at equivalent filesizes. It also offers much richer metadata support.

If it bothers you that much, go back to the iTunes you bought it on. Dig around in the preferences and find the "import tracks in which format" setting, possibly tucked under Advanced. Flip it to mp3. Go back to the tracks you bought, right click, and select "convert to mp3". Mp3 files will duly emerge.

It's not actually Apple's fault that few other software packages or hardware players support DRM-free AAC/mp4. It's not an Apple owned format, it's just the one they use because of technical advantages over mp3.

True, although the 256k mp3 files Amazon offer are not exactly the last word in audio fidelity. Mind you I'm even sniffy about 256k AAC from iTunes+. I prefer to buy the CDs and rip losslessly, generally, although sometimes I impulse buy digital music.

Cheers, that worked nicely.

I'm old fashioned, I'd be listening to my music on an abacus if I could.

I have been attracted by AAC at times, but until it becomes as popular and widespread in every media as MP3 I can't really use it as a recommended format to build up music archives (although if you had the hard disk space, you would ideally use FLAC for such backup purposes).


At the expense of loss of quality of course. Not that most of the world would notice a difference.

This is the thing, everything plays MP3, everyone knows what it is.

AAC (and derivatives thereof) are far less ubiquitous - and besides which, MP3s ripped at 256kbps with a decent encoder (320kbps if you're really fussy) are damn close to FLAC anyway, let alone AAC.

JESUS. Welcome to 1999, Atrocity Exhibition Get Winamp 5, it's basically Winamp 2 + the best bits of Winamp 3 (which was otherwise rubbish) and is much, much better than Winamp 2 on it's own.

Plus you can get ml_ipod for it so you can basically replace iTunes with Winamp for moving music to (and from!) the iPod.

Can you get the Milkdrop plugin for Winamp 5?

I like Winamp 2.80, it's always done everything I need it to, but I suppose I could investigate a more recent version.

I still use a version of Audiograbber from the same era to rip CDs, the installer fits on a floppy disc

Amazon is cheap, and doesn't involve software that shits all over your PC.

Yeah, you don't like Apple. We get it. Really.

I've not tried the Amazon tool thingy that you supposedly need to download their MP3s and all. Is it reliable?

Is it one of the ancient shareware versions? 'Cos it went freeware in 2004. Although the latest version doesn't fit on a floppy anymore.

The new version is 1.6MB, what shocking bloatware!

I will replace my elderly 1.45 version, and use the shiny 'new' 1.83 version instead, which dates back to 2004

I've downloaded a couple of things using the Mac version. The app does what it's supposed to do and does it fairly well. The option to automatically spit a copy of tracks into iTunes is a nice touch, as is the streamlined UI.

Yay! Some sense in the thread.

With all due respect to everyone else posting in this thread, I can't imagine willingly paying for mp3. And not in some sniffy 'it's free on Soulseek' way, but more a sniffy 'it sounds rubbish' way.

Get the CD in. Rip it to whatever format you want. Job's a good 'un. Especially if they're charging a tenner.

In semi-related news, this weekend saw me trying out an experiment I had been planning for quite a while. I'd ripped all my CDs to lossless in anticipation of linking my computer with my hi-fi. Then I got a DAC, ready for when I'd get a laptop in. Decided to borrow the work laptop for my week off, and USB it into the DAC (I'm gonna go coaxial when I actually buy my laptop, with S/PDIF goodness).

The result is awesomeness. It sounds better than using the DAC with my existing CD player. I am very happy.

256k AAC is pretty good, to be fair. In fact I generally rip at 192 for use on the iPhone, where I am prepared to trade quality for filesize (and as most of my iPhone listening is on the train over cheap headphones).

I once accidentally did a double-blind lossless test on myself. I had some FLAC files I'd ripped and forgotten about that cycled past in my playlist over a year later. I noticed immediately, to my own surprise.

I'm such a sound jerk. I have Audio-Technica noise-cancelling cans, and am fine with the song-amount trade off. ~500 songs that sound grand is tops. But yeah, kinda depends on your headphones.

I notice the difference between 320k-'lossless' and 'lossless'-WAV quite comfortably.* But I can come to a compromise: if I'd ripped everything to WAV, I'd have filled my 1TB external by now.

* Weirdly, I often mis-hear what people say in conversation, so I don't know what that says about my hearing.

I have an iTunes question, related to the above.

This work laptop is all well and good (WAVs of the new Animal Collective make me think there might be a god. I'd like Hephaestus), but I miss my main computer's playlists. I've been looking into importing iTunes data from one computer to another, but the page I've been looking at mentions XML files. I just can't find them. Is there an easy way of importing playlists etc. onto another computer?

Ta.

The .xml files should be there. Have you got a (very) old version of iTunes on your main PC?

You obviously don't. I have nothing against Apple, as my stack of Apple gear will testify to. I just don't think the iPhone is the best phone in the universe, and I (like many people) think iTunes is horrific, especially on a PC.
It's like people who think I'm a Sony-hater because I don't like the PS3.

I've got the latest. Am I looking in the wrong place? C/Program Files/iTunes...?

You appear to be looking on a unix box

The default option is C:\Users\<username>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml

If you have Vista - but you should be able to work out where to look for a XP PC.

Ah, found it. Thanks! It was in Documents and Settings (I'm on Windows XP if that makes any difference).

[edit] Should probably have refreshed before posting. Heh.

Ah, I'm not alone. I just need to find a way to convert my DRM-ridden music (I got an iTunes voucher at Christmas) into something I can play in Windows Media Player.

Are they iTunes or iTunes+ tracks? Tell iTunes to show the bitrate; 128k is DRMed iTunes files, 256k are DRM-free iTunes Plus.

I used to use Windows Media Player as default until they brought out the one that broke my love for it. I think it was 10? The one where it went from blue to black. Always crashes now.

I really like iTunes. The playlist filtering is grand. I would like to use it on a Mac to see what all the fuss is about though.

They're all 128k, unfortunately. I can always burn them to CD, but I don't see why I should have to do that to play the music I paid for in a media player I like.

Maybe it's because I've come to Windows from the Mac, but I absolutely detest Windows Media Player with a burning passion, yet love the simpler stylings of iTunes. Other than it's need to have Quicktime installed alongside it, I really don't understand the hate iTunes gets among Windows users. I mean, I guess the UI is better suited to the Mac, but still...

You have two problems. One, they have DRM on; you will need to remove that. I'm not sure what the state-of-the-art is with Fairplay cracking.

Two, they are in AAC format, and you may need to transcode to remove that

Exactamundo dude!

Indeed, and I really can't be arsed messing about trying to crack the things I own.

Do you have any credit left? Upgrading the tracks to iTunes Plus will remove the DRM.

Nope, and I'm not paying any more for it. Also, I can't even find the option to do that in my Quick Links section of the Store.

I'll just get some cheap CDs eventually. That should work, presumably.

Yup. Once on CD the DRM no longer applies, so you can do whatever you wish with the CD.

Sorry for the thread zombification and all, but just wanna check that my iTunes XML can be imported from my Windows to my MacBook without the latter exploding and leaving an incredibly pretty corpse. Ta.

It's 'just' XML, right?

No need to apologise; we actively encourage it.

Yeah, should be fine. All the usual disclaimers apply if it goes wrong, though.