iTunes--how does it work exactly?

[reveal]

D'oh! I still have Windows ME on my PC at home (I know, I know, I never liked it either) and Napster only supports Windows 2000 and XP.

Wow! You're only the second person I've known to have that. Time to upgrade!

 

[Mercule]

Wow! You're only the second person I've known to have that. Time to upgrade!

I had ME, but I upgraded to XP Pro as soon as it was available.

 

[msd]

D'oh! I still have Windows ME on my PC at home (I know, I know, I never liked it either) and Napster only supports Windows 2000 and XP.

Sigh. I'll go buy a bunch of CDs before I buy a new PC just to download music.

Truth be told, that is what I do most of the time. With a new artist, I might buy one or two tracks to see if I like the sound (worth the .99 or 1.98 investment in my mind). If I like it, I usually buy a hard copy of the album. Having the album and being able to burn the thing directly into .mp3 format just makes life a lot easier in a lot of ways in my mind.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I have iTunes on my Mac and use an iPod, so it is all very seamless. I like the service just fine and the quality is great to me.

I rip CDs to iTunes and burn iTunes Music Store downloads to CD.

Songs are 99 cents, but on certain albums a particular song may only be available if you purchase the entire album. Flip side is that some albums have more than 10 songs, but only cost $9.99 for the entire album. I think it depends upon the agreement between the label and Apple.

I don't mess around with altering the music or adding fades, so I have no idea about being able to do that.

I believe the license for downloaded songs is for 5 computers. You can decommission old computers and add new ones when you buy a new computer.

Personally I love it, but as a Mac fanatic, I am probably biased.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

The iPod plays iTunes files. Period. My .mp3s would be worthless, though I could take the time to convert/reburn my library.

Well, my iPod and iTunes has played mp3's ever since the first iPod. I now own the latest iPod, and use the lates iTunes and it still plays my ancient mp3s I first burned from my CD collection years ago. My brother has a PC with iTunes and an iPod and has downloaded thousands of mp3s off the web and listens to them exclusively on his iPod or on his PC in iTunes.

iTunes also plays AIFF and WAV files perfectly fine ever since I have owned it. Its burned mp3 CDs for me that my younger brother listens to in his car player, and it has burned audio CDs that I have given to my folks to listen to on their 12 year old CD player.

If you own a Mac, iTunes can sync with other manufacturer's players. Apple's tech support docs say that iTunes for Windows can play mp3s and burn mp3 CDs. Here is Apple's tech support document on the audio formats that iPods can play.

 

[Mercule]

Well, my iPod and iTunes has played mp3's ever since the first iPod. I now own the latest iPod, and use the lates iTunes and it still plays my ancient mp3s I first burned from my CD collection years ago. My brother has a PC with iTunes and an iPod and has downloaded thousands of mp3s off the web and listens to them exclusively on his iPod or on his PC in iTunes.

Well, I did explicitly say that the iTunes player would play .mp3s ("most formats", actually). It was the iPod that I said did not. I'll obviously defer to your first-hand experience.

When I was doing research on the various portables, though, it was indicated to me that the iPod would not play .mp3s, as-is. Rather, you'd have to convert them to .m4ps with the iTunes player. Apparently, my source was in error.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Apparently, my source was in error.

No problem!

Also, for whoever cares, podcasts are almost exclusively mp3 files. I listen to Ron Moore's BSG commentary podcasts on my iPod in my car during the week.

 

[Eltern]

http://allofmp3.com/

Allofmp3. Quite good. Quite easy. Quite cheap. Quite Russian. Quite dubious as to how legal it is.

It's based in Russia, which if I'm correct has no copyright laws for music. YOU select what format and bitrate you want the song to be in, and you pay $.01 per megabyte. Entire albums for a buck or three.

Granted, it's easy to feel unscrupulous using this provider. Of course, you -are- paying for the music, but I very much doubt any of the money gets back to the artists or the labels. I don't mind, since most of the artists I listen to are dead. And the selection is very nice.

Oh, and I play them on iTunes. I like the program, especially with it's easy compatibility with things like Podcasts and radio channels. I may get an iPod soon, we'll see.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Oh, and I play them on iTunes. I like the program, especially with it's easy compatibility with things like Podcasts and radio channels. I may get an iPod soon, we'll see.

That's another thing iTunes has that makes it nice. Within iTunes, you can browse to various internet streaming music channels. You can also browse to many many (Apple approved) podcasts right within iTunes... That's where I found the Battlestar Galactica podcast. "Apple approved" because Apple checks the podcasters to make sure they aren't making music that isn't free available freely through their podcast.

 

[Dimwhit]

The other reason I like Yahoo! Music has come up as I've started to consider buying a portable player. The iPod plays iTunes files. Period. My .mp3s would be worthless, though I could take the time to convert/reburn my library.

Not true. iPods will play any mp3 file at all, as well as the AAC files that you get from the iTunes music store. iPods are also very, very nice. They don't play wma files, however. At least to my knowledge.