itunes4 music store and mp3 cds

iRock

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has anyone tried to burn an mp3 cd from an acc file downloaded from Apple's music store?

I'm curious if you can really convert one of their files to an mp3. I wouldn't think they would let you...but what do i know

if someone could try i out i'd be very happy :)
 
As a short answer to the question: "yes". You can do that ... i'm unsure if itunes itself lets you burn it as a mp3-cd or only as a normal audio-cd. has anyone tried?
(if that doesnt allow the mp3-cd ... you would need to unprotect those AAC files. That can be done, but the infos on how to do that are not welcome on the board. (so don't ask or post how to unprotect.) ) :)
 
And if it lets you burn it as a standard CD, how does it prevent that it is then converted to MP3 by just re-importing the CD ?

Or is it just that it's so simple to do it right that nobody is supposed to try to do it another way ? Because iTunes will not prevent Gnutella to operate, it just creates another, better way, to have the music.
 
Copy from iTunes help:

To convert a song's file format:

To convert all the songs in a folder or on a disk, hold down the Option key and choose Advanced > "Convert Selection to." All the songs in the folder or on the disk will be converted except songs you purchased from the Music Store. (Purchased songs are encoded using a protected AAC format that prevents them from being converted.)
 
There has been a lot of specialtion on this issue. I intend to find out if you can take an AAC file, convert it to the AIFF file along with other mp3's then re-import that AIFF, which was originally an AAC into an mp3 format. By doing so, it would seem likely that you could bypass the three computer limitation. But I wouldn't count on it, and since I don't have a need to do this, it might be some time before I get around to actually testing this theory.
 
Honestly, the iTunes Music store has changed my attitude on the subject.

With the advent of the iTunes Music store, I really don't mind buying music. Something about it being from Apple, and at the right price. I am not that cheap, I can afford to purchase a song for a dollar.

How cheap do you have to be to want to steal music that you can buy for a buck?
 
So, as chevy pointed out in the iTumes help, it sounds as if you can't burn an mp3 cd using the acc files downloaded from the music store. If someone is still able to try it to confirm that would be nice.

now let me complain. I completely understand why they don't want you to be able to easily convert to an mp3...and granted, i haven't really looked for a hack to do it, so it may be easy (if you know of one you can feel free to email me about it)...but i'm a little annoyed that you can't burn mp3 cds. There are a lot of CD based mp3 players out there and they can't play acc files. Meaning its still a pain in the ass for me to burn an mp3 cd of my purchased music to play in my car stereo. ...and with that i conclude my whining
 
I am a little annoyed by this too. Here is my point. I also dont mind buying the music for .99 I think it is a great idea. I will not buy anymore though. The primary reason I want the music is so I can burn it to a CD and listne to it im my car. The music does me no good sitting on my computer. If I buy something I expect to have full controll of it. I would rather buy a CD convert it to MP3 to store and listen on my computer and build a library so I can burn car CD's for different moods.
 
Get a coverter and run it through your car stereo. You have far more options as far as music goes. And there are plenty of car adapters and more coming out, from the cassette to stero converters to fm transmitters to stero line outs.

Give it time. It's the same as when mp3s started coming around and the firstadopters were grousing that cd players couldn't read mp3 files. Slowly that began to change, as shall this. Patience is often a requirement when you're on the cutting edge.
 
Originally posted by b4tn
I am a little annoyed by this too. Here is my point. I also dont mind buying the music for .99 I think it is a great idea. I will not buy anymore though. The primary reason I want the music is so I can burn it to a CD and listne to it im my car. The music does me no good sitting on my computer. If I buy something I expect to have full controll of it. I would rather buy a CD convert it to MP3 to store and listen on my computer and build a library so I can burn car CD's for different moods.

What are you talking about? I burned 4 CDs last Friday for a road trip to LA and they played perfectly fine on my CD player in my car. 3/4 of the music was from the Music Store and the other 1/4 was music from my collection, some mp3s and some from CDs I had purchased. Each CD had a mix of music and they burned perfectly fine. I didn't have to burn only Music Store Music or mp3s or music from my CDs.

Everything was flawless. I did notice though that the Music Store stuff and the music from my CDs was superior to the mp3s.

Did I miss something or are you under the impression you can't burn CDs?

Oops, pushed the submit button too soon. I didn't realize that you wanted to convert everything to mp3s. I don't know why though, the sound quality isn't as good as aac. I spose you would get more music onto a CD that way but that is the only advantage I can see.
 
I'm not sure what format everything was in but I bought an album from the store the other day and burned it to a CD with iTunes and it played in my car CD player just fine.

Then I got to work and the CD played in my Win98 PC too. (using RealOne to play it) RealOne even let me rip the songs to my HD so I can listen to it on my PC without having the CD.

I was really suprised - and happy - that it let me do all that!
 
The reason to burn to an mp3 cd: you get about 800 minutes of music per cd rather than 80. That's pretty significant. a lot of people have portable cd/mp3 players that play mp3 cds. while you can play audio cds in them, it's dumb when you can have about 12 normal audio cds on one mp3 cd. I have an cd based mp3 player in my car which is awesome...it means i fiddle with the radio less to get some decent music. As far as quality, yes, the acc format is higher quality at a smaller file size...but an mp3 can be the same quality, just slightly larger in file size...but it's kind of a mute point here since my car and other portable cd based mp3 players don't play acc files.

I have been reading threads elsewhere...it seems the best solution came out today. Discribe allows you to convert acc files to aiffs. I have heard there is some weird restriction attached...so you may have to burn them to a disc image, then basically rip mp3s off of the disc image. several people are taking this apporach with toast....
 
There are a few ways you can make an MP3 out of an AAC. If you have toast I've heard it will do it without any intervention from you. Also you could burn the audio CD and then re-rip the tracks to mp3 or non-DRM'd AAC's
 
I undeerstand why you would want to convert the songs downloaded as well.

I will not be buying anymore from the Apple store unless I can convert to mp3 as I do not have a car cd player, but do have an mp3 player... that doesn't play aac.
 
C'mon people! :rolleyes:

The limitation here is that you can't directly convert m4ps to mp3s. As Rhino_G3 pointed out, nothing is stopping you from burning them as an audio CD (on say a CD-RW ;) ) and then re-importing them as mp3s.
 
Right! From iTunes, burn your AAC's to cd. Read your iTunes directions if you're not sure how.

Next, select the cd from iTunes (from the list on the left side of the iTunes window) and rip the songs back off the cd into mp3 format. Just an extra step, that's all.

The AAC "copy protection" is very weak.

Ahem. . . MacOSX.com does not condone the illegal use of copyrighted music. But I believe we're all entitled to a backup of music we've purchased. There ya go.

Doug
 
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