Bonehead iTunes Question

Overpaid Slacker · 04-13-2005, 02:24 PM

No, really, I feel stupid for asking this:

So I buy a song from iTunes, and it arrives as an .m4p file. If I burn that onto a CD to be played in my car (which will play .mp3, .wav, etc.) it won't play.

Roxio won't find the .m4p and allow me to play it through its jukebox (.m4p is not a file extension I can select to have it locate).

If I go and just change the .m4p to .mp3 neither iTunes nor Roxio can find it.

Is there a way to convert the .m4p to .mp3?

I haven't searched the archives for this, so a thousand apologies in advance if it's been covered before.

Thanks in advance,

JP

JavaBrewer · JavaBrewer's Garage

I hate iTunes, but then I think Windoz is fine and dandy.

The only way to "convert" to mp3 is to burn a CD using the m4P files and then rip the CD back into mp3. You can configure iTunes to rip into mp3 from the properties panel.

Edit - that's the only way I know of. I believe this was discussed in the past. Do a search, or wait for one of the Mac brethern to respond.

Overpaid Slacker · 04-13-2005, 02:37 PM

Thanks, David. I'll give that a try and await the RIAA black helicopters w/ the .45 on my hip.

JP

Overpaid Slacker · 04-13-2005, 03:32 PM

Wow, and there's even a "convert to .mp3" option if you right click a song. Bonehead.

My impatience got the best of me. Again.

Gotta run. Gotta get to my "how to operate a lightswitch" lessons.

JP

cegerer · cegerer's Garage

You need to hardwire the iPod to the car stereo and junk those obsolete CD's.

BTW: I love iTunes! It's as simple as it gets. Especially since I've now got a couple dozen free 'tunes' from Pepsi.

JavaBrewer · JavaBrewer's Garage

Last time I checked the "convert to mp3" on music purchased through iTunes (m4p format) was a no starter.

jyl · jyl's Garage

I don't remember the last time I put a CD in my car stereo. I just plug in the iPod.

JavaBrewer · JavaBrewer's Garage

The reason I don't like iTunes is that when I imported my mp3 music library it tried to "organize" the files by artist, category, genre, etc... It also renamed my entire music collection. Bad part was that it failed to recognize about 400 mp3s in that library and I ended up with a mess, Track1.mp3, Track2.mp3, etc.... I now know that I can turn that "feature" off. I went a step further and removed iTunes, smoked the mess it created, and reinstalled my library of mp3s that I have archived on 5 CDs.

For listening to music I use Winamp. For burning CDs I use Nero which has a simple directory or drag/drop interface. No worries.

JavaBrewer · JavaBrewer's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by jyl
I don't remember the last time I put a CD in my car stereo. I just plug in the iPod.

I want to avoid the whole "my iPod is dead and my life has ended" scenario. Yeah yeah you can by a new iPod and resynch, but I want to make that decision.

IanW505 · IanW505's Garage

i've *heard* (wink wink) there is also an extremely easy way to convert all .m4p's to .mp3. This works even if you buy music directly from iTunes, you can convert it to .mp3 from it's protected .m4p format. PM if you want the details, it works great.

-Ian

Saintly · 04-13-2005, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by IanW505
i've *heard* (wink wink) there is also an extremely easy way to convert all .m4p's to .mp3. This works even if you buy music directly from iTunes, you can convert it to .mp3 from it's protected .m4p format. PM if you want the details, it works great.

-Ian

Hi,
attempted to send a PM and got
"Sorry! That user has specified that they do not wish to receive emails through this board. If you still wish to send an email to this user, please contact the administrator and they may be able to help."

IanW505 · IanW505's Garage

I think you tried to send an email instead of a PM...regardless, i'll just PM you the info.

Saintly · 04-13-2005, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by IanW505
I think you tried to send an email instead of a PM...regardless, i'll just PM you the info.

ahh.. mark me down for the bone head section too

Overpaid Slacker · 04-14-2005, 06:28 AM

Curt -- in the process of doing that, but I've got a number of cars to cover. If I can't hardwire it, my iTrip usually works fine. It became a matter of principle to me to be able to convert the .m4p so I could do whatever I wanted with the tune I bought.

BTW, the burn/rip worked fine. PITA to rename/re ID3, but it worked.

JP

djmcmath · 04-14-2005, 07:06 AM

Seems like the boneheaded thing about iTunes is that silly "i." I mean, can we get rid of the absurdly useless extraneous letters? iTunes, iPod, iTrip, iMac -- what is this, some kind of extra-letter diarhea?

Or maybe we all need an extra letter. I could be qDan. Tabs could be cTabs. I see the beginnings of a revolution, my friends...

Overpaid Slacker · 04-14-2005, 07:56 AM

In the "I, Claudius" vein, I could be "I, Overpaid Slacker".

I think Tabs should have superfluous initial "s".

Oh, and Ian, you have a PM.

JP

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

I don't understand why your cd won't play on the car stereo when you burn. How are you doing it? From within iTunes, or are you making a data disc with mp3 (and mp4) files on it?

If you burn the cd from within iTunes, it makes a traditional redbook cd that should play on any audio cd player...doesn't matter what format the audio file is (mp3, aiff, wav, etc). If you are burning some other way, then you are making a data disc. I believe there are some audio players that can deal with this, but the aac file (mp4) from ITMS won't play becuase the DRM won't work.

Yes, blame the RIAA and dinosaur record labels that stuck their heads in the sand and don't want to stop making stupid amounts of money off the backs of artists. But that's another rant...