Downloading help

[Lucy]

I didn't see a thread like this.

Anyway, I'm new to the whole "downloading music off the Internet." I've downloaded some songs off Walmart, and they're in the "my music" file on my computer. I've downloaded others off itunes, and they're in the itunes file. I've managed to move some of them around, but my computer isn't recognizing all the Itunes ones and the non-itunes ones won't go in the Itunes thingy. How do I get them all in one place so I can burn a CD? Or, if I burn some from "my music," can I then add some off Itunes? Or do they HAVE to be all in one place? :help

[Dinahann]

Jeez, Lucy, I was trying to burn a CD last night and I had a similar problem. And no, I couldn't figure it out either but surely someone here can!

[Leo]

Lucy, welcome to the wondefully infuriating world of online music downloading and Digital Rights Management.

The basic problem is that the Walmart store and iTunes both use entirely separate file formats to store the music you've bought from each one. Walmart (probably, I'm not 100% sure) uses the WMA format from Microsoft; iTunes has its own one from Apple. Naturally, since they are competing products, the players (Windows Media Player and iTunes) don't support the other's formats. Add to that DRM, which rather limits what you can do with the files.

There's no easy way to do what you want to do. You can only burn the Walmart songs in Windows Media Player and the iTunes songs in iTunes. The only way around this would be:

- Pick the store where you're going to be buying most of your downloaded music. For the benefit of this example, let's say its iTunes.

- Go to the other player and burn the songs there onto a CD. I suggest using a CD-RW so the burned disc won't become a coaster. Burn it as an audio CD.

- Import the songs on the CD into iTunes. You will probably have to enter the track information (song name, artist, album, etc.) by hand.

There are some other ways around this, but they would be illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

One more thing about this whole mess: the choice of music store and portable music player have to be closely inter-related. Unless you'd like to do the 3-step process above for every album you buy, your music player and music store have to match. If you want an iPod, you'll have to buy your music from iTunes. For most other MP3 players (like those from Dell and Creative), you can use stores that use the WMA format.

Hope this helps.

[Lucy]

Thanks, Leo! At least now I know I'm not missing some absurdly easy way to do things. In the future I'll just download from one place. For now, I'll see if my computer will let me burn songs from both formats onto one CD.

[Fort_Fan911]

Where do you guys download music? Kazaa is not very useful and WinMX shut down.

[John]

Napster, iTunes, Wal-mart Music, etc. They're all very reliable, with large selections.

These are, of course, pay sites. We don't allow discussion of illegal downloading here.

[Lucy]

So is Napster legit now? I've been looking for a new legal download site; I'm tired of Wal-mart cleaning up lyrics, and of iTunes putting things in weird formats.

[Leo]

Napster's been legit for about two years already, although about the only thing they have in common with the Napster of old is the name and logo. They're primarily a subscription-based service, although you do have the option to buy single tracks as well.

I'd be leery of subscription-based services, though. The problem is you're essentially dependent on the company staying in business to keep your music in one piece. If say, Napster goes out of business (again), almost all the music you bought there goes down the tube too (since you never really "buy" music under the subscription model). That's not such a good thing.

[MRD]

I, being an idiot, managed to delete all my music files for my ipod on my computer. Over 800 songs. Many I've been able to restore from CD's, but I had bought downloads and now those are gone too. I think I already know the answer to this question, but if I bought it and then deleted it and want it again, I will have to pay to download it again right?

I can't believe I did that. I've been working on this problem for months now because there were so many songs and it took me months to get all those songs in the first place. I wont' be so stupid from here on out.

[Leo]

From what I know, iTunes will let you re-download stuff you've lost - once. Here's a blog post talking about this.

Itunes Lets People Re-Download all Your Music Once! « The Content