You're all going to laugh at this question.

[beatrice_otter]

I know you are. This is me, ridiculously technology-illiterate for a 25-year-old American. I don't even know how to set up/use a chat or IM program.

So. I sometimes use my laptop as a really big MP3 player, because I don't have the money for a real mp3 player (not having had a job in over a year and the last job I had averaged five hours a week--I'm a full-time student) and I haven't gotten one for Christmas or my birthday yet. I use Windows Media Player. I would like to download a few songs over the internet, I know they have them on iTunes. How would one go about transferring them from iTunes to WMP? Should I see if I can download them from some other site? The only pay-download program I've ever used is iTunes; I bought a couple of Stargate episodes I missed from them when I couldn't stand to wait for the DVDs. But that's been at least a year.

Comments

[shallanelprin.livejournal.com]

I think Amazon's music download service sells you mp3 format which plays on WMP just fine.

[antennapedia.livejournal.com]

Okay, this one can be confusing. Lemme see if I can explain it.

Music files come in a few different flavors. #1 is the kind of file they are, which is to say, the kind of compression used to make them small. MP3 is the famous method (stands for mpeg 2 layer 3). AAC (stands for 'advanced audio codec') is a newer encoding. Those two are standards. Then there are encodings like WMV/WMA. Then on top of this there's something called "DRM" or "digital restrictions management", which is to say, the thing that attempts to prevent you from sharing songs you buy online, or playing them on somebody else's player.

Songs you purchase from the iTunes Music Service are AAC format. If they are *PLUS* songs, they don't have DRM and can be played anywhere. (Suffix is m4a.) If they are ordinary iTMS songs, they are restricted and can only be played in iTunes (file suffix is m4p).

The same "restricted or not?" question applies to songs you buy from other services. Some WMA files are restricted; some can be played anywhere.

Then there's Amazon's mp3 download service. That's entirely unrestricted, and you can play the songs you buy there with any player software and on any device. I've been buying most of my music there since they opened for that reason, even though I own an iPod.

If you buy a plus (aka unrestricted) song in iTunes, you can play it in the Windows player software by adding the file to its library. There'll be some menu option that lets you do this. If you buy a song using iTunes or WMP directly, it will already know about the song.

Clear as mud?

[beatrice_otter]

Aha! Much appreciated. Off to amazon.com it is ...

[beatrice_otter]

Except Amazon.com doesn't seem to have the song I want. It's by the New Pornographers, called "Joseph, who understood." Aargh. It's the B-side to their single "The Spirit of Giving," which is on Amazon.com. I'd kind of like "The Spirit of Giving" and the other B-side song "Arms of Mary/Looking at a Baby" (which isn't there, either) as well, but Joseph is the song I really want.

Given that Amazon.com has failed me, where should I go from here?

[antennapedia.livejournal.com]

That song is on iTunes, but not in "plus" format. So you could buy it and play it in iTunes, but not in WMP. Welcome to the consumer-unfriendly world of music downloading, where everything is a royal pain if you want to be honest and pay for the music you listen to.

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

iTunes may not transfer properly to other players, as they have a lot of coding to protect them from "misuse" which includes your own fricking MP3 players and alternate players. You pay for the damn things, but they don't let you properly own them. I actually want nothing to do with them, and you might have better luck than I.

If you insist on going the legal route, try Rhapsody.com. Even Amazon lets you download MP3s. I recommend avoiding iTunes at all costs.

[layec.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, I didn't know that either. And we're the same age. And I'm in an Electronics and Computer Engineering Program at one of the premier tech schools in the country. **blinkblink** I'm only second semester though, so don't come down too hard on me.

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

Okay, I cannot vouch for this *at all* as I have never used it, nor do I have any iTunes format files to test it on. But this software (http://www.m4p-mp3.com/) will allegedly copy from an iTunes file to a regular .mp3. With a little tutorial and everything..

[beatrice_otter]

Thanks! Will have to check it out.