iTunes store?

[Andvari]

I'm actually thinking of going the legal route with my music from now on. If for no other reason than convenience and being sick of poor quality varying bit rate downloads heh.

So a few questions are in order:

1. The iTunes store lets you download songs in m4a format. Is it possible to convert that to mp3 or wma?

2. You gotta have iTunes to download their music?

3. They have unedited and edited stuff?

 

[Gurck]

Why would you pay full price for lossy-encoded music with copy protection to prevent you from manipulating it as you see fit, seeing as how you own it? You can convert from one lossy format to another, but it'll result in a loss of sound quality, like a recording of a recording.

 

[Andvari]

Because my university blocks P2P programs, and I'm not about to go buy a whole album to listen to a single song. What other alternative do I have? =\

 

[Yossairian]

1. Yes, download. Burn as a music CD. Re-encode as MP3 ( or whatever unprotected format )

2. Yes
3. Yes

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Gurck
Why would you pay full price for lossy-encoded music with copy protection to prevent you from manipulating it as you see fit, seeing as how you own it? You can convert from one lossy format to another, but it'll result in a loss of sound quality, like a recording of a recording.

I'll tell you once again, not everyone is anal about their music. If you have to explain lossy formats to someone, then it doesn't matter to them. They are just a normal person who like their music. And guess what? The normal person also would not typically be converting the files downloaded from iTunes more than once. And guess what? Most of us will never know the difference.

Gurck, you really need to get off your iPod and lossy format bashing, it's getting old.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Napster will sell you WMA files for the same $1/song. They're protected like iTunes files, but you can skip the conversion step needed if you don't have an iPod.

If you have the right player that supports recent MS rights management, Napster To Go ($15/month) and Yahoo ($8/month) will let you "rent" unlimited songs to download to your player.

It might be cheaper to buy a new player with the latest MS protection and use Napster or Yahoo than to buy a bunch of songs at $1 each.

 

[sonoma1993]

i think in itunes options menu . it'll allow you to change it to mp3 when you buy the songs and download them

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: blurredvision

Originally posted by: Gurck
Why would you pay full price for lossy-encoded music with copy protection to prevent you from manipulating it as you see fit, seeing as how you own it? You can convert from one lossy format to another, but it'll result in a loss of sound quality, like a recording of a recording.

I'll tell you once again, not everyone is anal about their music. If you have to explain lossy formats to someone, then it doesn't matter to them. They are just a normal person who like their music. And guess what? The normal person also would not typically be converting the files downloaded from iTunes more than once. And guess what? Most of us will never know the difference.

Gurck, you really need to get off your iPod and lossy format bashing, it's getting old.

I only asked a question, and the OP answered it no problem. I didn't suggest lossless or high quality lossy was the only way to go, I questioned paying full price for low quality (ie. re-ripped) lossy. Lastly, I didn't so much as mention ipods. Please, troll elsewhere; I'm not in the mood to argue... though you seem hell-bent on it :roll:

People claiming they don't care about quality simply haven't heard a good setup. Life goes on after HS & college, though it may not seem this way to you now. Many people actually make this stuff called "money" and upgrade from their Boomitech speakers and $1 Sony Bass-Expl0dar headphones, at which point they will end up kicking themself as they re-purchase their music. Lossy can be acceptable imo, but not when it's been converted from one format to another.

Btw, OP - since you won't get an apology from the young'un, please accept mine for aiding in derailing your thread, though my part was small indeed. I'd suggest allofmp3.com.

 

[Andvari]

Lol, it's all good. And my brain certainly knows what lossy formats are, but my ears don't. I'm all about quality, but one man's definition of quality differs from the next. I know the downsides of converting from one lossy to another, but the sound quality isn't the ONLY factor I make decisions on. I can either:

A) Have a CD with 15 songs on it in lossy format.
B) Have an MP3 CD with 150 songs on it in twice lossy format, highest bitrate possible

The ever so slight loss in sound quality will barely be noticable, but the extra 135 songs is the seller here. Same with my iPod and my Jukebox Zen. Zen sounds SLIGHTLY better, most people might not notice. But regardless, the iPod feels better in my pocket, and that matters to me more than I thought it would. I bought the Zen for the quality, but got tired of the bulk and said "Who cares, i need the smaller lighter weight iPod." You're preachin to the choir about sound quality, but I just have other factors to consider too. =)


Oh, and as for just plain lossy vs unlossy, I can't tell a differen in most songs. If it's encoded well, it can sound perfect anyway. I've got the Cowboy Bebop soundtracks in mp3, the first OST is in 112 bitrate and the others are in 128. Not sure why one is in 112, but it sounds PERFECT. No clue why/how heh.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Gurck
I didn't suggest lossless or high quality lossy was the only way to go, I questioned paying full price for low quality (ie. re-ripped) lossy.

Exactly, you never suggest anything. You always question. Do you realize you always come off as condescending and arrogant about the sound of your music?

Originally posted by: Gurck
Lastly, I didn't so much as mention ipods. Please, troll elsewhere; I'm not in the mood to argue... though you seem hell-bent on it :roll:

First up, I'm nowhere near "hell-bent" on arguing. Just one post, that's all. And seeing as to how many here think Gurck and iPod-hater is synonymous, that's not really a good thing. How many arguments have you tried to start in various iPod threads of people just wanting info?

Originally posted by: Gurck
People claiming they don't care about quality simply haven't heard a good setup. Life goes on after HS & college, though it may not seem this way to you now. Many people actually make this stuff called "money" and upgrade from their Boomitech speakers and $1 Sony Bass-Expl0dar headphones, at which point they will end up kicking themself as they re-purchase their music.

You've proved my point here. There aren't quite that many of us in the world who do upgrade from your so-called high school sound equipment. I just can't understand why you feel the need to preach about lossy format in a thread made by casual listeners. It's like going into a thread where someone wants to know the best price on a Dell, and you're trying to bash Dell and get them to consider an Alienware. What you don't understand is there is a difference between performance users and internet surfers. (Yes, this is just an analogy, don't bother expanding on an example.)

Originally posted by: Gurck
Btw, OP - since you won't get an apology from the young'un, please accept mine for aiding in derailing your thread, though my part was small indeed. I'd suggest allofmp3.com.

No apology from me. You should also apologize for recommending a morally illegal site. For a man who likes to spend thousands of dollars on sound equipment, you sure as hell do not care to aid in the ripping off of those who create the sound for you. Otherwise, your $10k speaker will become useless.

EDIT: Apparently I can't spell argue.

 

[LASTGUY2GETPS2]

1) To decrypt your music: http://www.hymn-project.org/
2) Yes
3) Yes

 

[Yossairian]

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
i think in itunes options menu . it'll allow you to change it to mp3 when you buy the songs and download them

I belive the setting you are thinking of is for how itunes encodes the music while importing (ripping) from your CDs. All the songs from the store are sold in the protected format.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: Gurck
I'd suggest allofmp3.com

Originally posted by: blurredvision
Exactly, you never suggest anything. You always question.

^

Do you realize you always come off as condescending and arrogant about the sound of your music?

I merely care about sound quality; my concession that others are different was made apparent by both my suggestion of another site and my explicit statement that lossy is acceptable. Do you realize you come off as a typical teenybopper who thinks he knows everything but in actuality hasn't a clue?

First up, I'm nowhere near "hell-bent" on arguing. Just one post, that's all. And seeing as to how many here think Gurck and iPod-hater is synonymous, that's not really a good thing. How many arguments have you tried to start in various iPod threads of people just wanting info?

If you want to talk ipods, make a thread about them or dig one up. Doing it here is trolling, which of course was your intent from the beginning. I've never tried to start an argument on ipods. If asked for my opinion, I'll give it; I don't like ipods for various rock-solid reasons. This incites flames and namecalling from the little kids who think Apple is just SO "kewl" because of the image they get spoon-fed on MTV, and can't really refute the aforementioned rock-solid reasons. I'm not to blame.

You've proved my point here. There aren't quite that many of us in the world who do upgrade from your so-called high school sound equipment. I just can't understand why you feel the need to preach about lossy format in a thread made by casual listeners. It's like going into a thread where someone wants to know the best price on a Dell, and you're trying to bash Dell and get them to consider an Alienware. What you don't understand is there is a difference between performance users and internet surfers. (Yes, this is just an analogy, don't bother expanding on an example.)

Bad analogy, you're contrasting a lower price against a better product. In the OP's case, the better product is also less expensive. Further, supporting the freedom-trampling called DRM is bad for all of us, and itms customers are doing just that.

No apology from me.

Not surprising

You should also apologize for recommending a morally illegal site. For a man who likes to spend thousands of dollars on sound equipment, you sure as hell do not care to aid in the ripping off of those who create the sound for you. Otherwise, your $10k speaker will become useless.

Rofl, allofmp3 is a morally illegal site? You're killing me :laugh: It's legal under Russian law, which specifies that they pay only the artist. Not the 90+ % cut the RIAA steals from said artists because they control radio & mtv and artists have no choice. They also don't piss all over our freedoms with DRM. Which site is morally illegal?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Gurck
Rofl, allofmp3 is a morally illegal site? You're killing me :laugh: It's legal under Russian law, which specifies that they pay only the artist. Not the 90+ % cut the RIAA steals from said artists because they control radio & mtv and artists have no choice. They also don't piss all over our freedoms with DRM. Which site is morally illegal?

Actually they don't pay regular artist and songwriter royalties as they would get from a CD sale, they pay radio station broadcast rates and count each sale as one "listener."

Since that's a tiny, tiny fraction of the royalties for a legal sale, they are effectively not paying the artist and songwriter.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: Gurck
Rofl, allofmp3 is a morally illegal site? You're killing me :laugh: It's legal under Russian law, which specifies that they pay only the artist. Not the 90+ % cut the RIAA steals from said artists because they control radio & mtv and artists have no choice. They also don't piss all over our freedoms with DRM. Which site is morally illegal?

Actually they don't pay regular artist and songwriter royalties as they would get from a CD sale, they pay radio station broadcast rates and count each sale as one "listener."

Since that's a tiny, tiny fraction of the royalties for a legal sale, they are effectively not paying the artist and songwriter.

Good to know... what options are there, then, as more and more CDs go with dual-disc format?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Good to know... what options are there, then, as more and more CDs go with dual-disc format?

None .

I hate the RIAA as much as the next person, but there's really no good way to pay the artists except by buying a CD (and then 90% goes to record company scum). The closest you can come is if you buy band merchandise or live CDs directly from the band, but how many t-shirts do you need?

 

[tami]

there are many mp3 converter software programs out there. one that i particularly like to use is the xilisoft suite.