Convert iTunes to MP3 Format - Comments

Excellent article thanks Bob! Apple have done very well with their marketing and smoke screens with the iPod and until recently I was largely uneducated having not delved much into the portable player technical side of things. After some reading and hearing the hype a lot of people were touting about iPod this and iPod that, I'm pleased I know what I know now and your article only helps further not only in education but with solutions to the 'To iPod or not to iPod' conundrum. Thanks.

I have been using TuneBite (http://www.TuneBite.com). Here is a quote from their home page:
"Tunebite lets you make unprotected copies of copy-protected music files by recording them while they are being played. Now turbo-powered for ultra-high recording speed, Tunebite is totally innovative, totally legal and totally cool."

I have been using JHymn for over a year and then, unfortunately for me, I upgraded to iTunes 6.0 and cannot use it any more.

So I discovered the method you described on my own...but it's a huge drag. So I finally just bought an iPod and succumbed to the strong-arm tactics. Personally, I don't really understand why this isn't an antitrust violation (just took Antitrust Law in law school) -- why isn't this like the "bundled browser" Microsoft case? iTunes is the most popular LEGAL music download service/store and are making it so that people MUST use the tied product (the iPod) and cannot change the product once purchased. Maybe I need to re-read that case...

Food for thought: you all but insinuate that Apple's use of DRM is only about the money...THEIR money. In reality, it is the music industry's greed that has created the current myriad of DRM technologies and restrictions. (Of course, it does work to the benefit of Apple because they can use the DRM to force a "bundled" iTunes+iPod solution, but that's a different situation altogether.)

It's a bit unfair to blame Apple for the use of DRM (2nd paragraph of your article)...if it weren't for it's use, Apple would never had gotten the music industry to sell their music online and we'd all still be buying CD's (possibly with DRM built-in!!!)...actually, we'd all be buying cassettes because they are not in a "digital" format!

In fact, no I wasn't insinuating that at all. I merely made the statement that Apple have been very good at their marketing and smoke screens... which is a true statement, they have. Interesting you state that it is down to the music industry's greed. From what I've seen if it were the music industry vs the end user, the end user is ahead by a loooong way in terms of piracy so I don't feel to bad for those pirating music thiefs out there to be honest. If I were a musician I would want something protecting my work and livelihood as well. I agree it's a shame these measures have to be taken, but I guess that's what dishonesty does, creates problems and hurdles for all and really there ends up being no easy solution. Wouldn't it be a great and simple world if we didn't need security in any form ;o)

Interesting article and discussion. I own an iPod cos I think its way cool, but can understand the frustration of non iPod users. Anyway I have three other points I want to raise:

1. Is the AAC format actually better sounding than mp3's? I think it is, but then I might be biased. On that point alone I would use the AAC format rather than mp3, eventhough mp3's are much more universal.

2. I read somewhere that converting from AAC to mp3 creates a loss in quality. Any comments? If you burn a cd of AAC tracks and then convert them back to mp3's you will definately experience a loss in quality because you are going through two conversion processes (1. AAC -> Audio CD, 2. Audio CD -> Mp3). Each time you convert from one format to another (except in the case of Wav. to Aiff.) you experience a loss in audio quality.

3. This is more of a frustration than question. I live in a country (South Africa) where we don't have access to the iTunes store (the American version or our own), and I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be able to surf iTunes, see all the music that I want and not be able to buy a single track because why? Copyright issues! Perhaps, Bob, you could discuss a work around for this too!

P.S. -- I still have Version 4 of iTunes on my computer, if anyone wants me to email it to them...

In order to load tracks from iTunes (which I had bought, and I owned) into another MP3 player (Creative), I burned a bunch of CDs. The problem with that (besides the time it takes to make the CDs) is that one loses all of the information about the tracks. It took me hours to enter the information by hand so that I could sort through the music on my MP3 player. Needless to say, I'm not happy. After all, the music is mine...I bought it...and I should be able to listen to it in whatever device I choose! As far as I'm concerned, it is about Apple and their profits. If I download songs into Windows Media, I can load them onto whatever player I choose.

The way to do it: 1) burn a cd - when it is finished, it will appear in iTunes with artist, title, etc. 2) DO NOT EJECT THE CD but 3) immidiately import the cd as mp3's. The only information you lose is tracknr and albumart.

Next trick: you created a playlist to burn the cd. Now open the "recently added" smart playlist. You can easily select your newly imported songs here. Drag and drop to the original playlist. The "burn" playlist now contains duplicates. Sort by name and voila, you can easily compare and correct information. Sort by kind, de-select the protected ACC's. I also enter $I in the comments for the mp3's so I can later see where my music came from.

Thank you for the clear description of how to convert a sound file from mp4 to mp3. I did this once, then forgot ...and, to get a sound from one of the Apple editing tools for use as sound effects in Flash, the file needs to be converted to mp3 (according to the Flash manual). So, you have provided very useful information...

I use tunebite. This little program does it all when it comes to converting my m4p's to mp3's. Try it.