Itunes right, right?

[bracurrie]

Some time ago, Apple made it possible to download again music "purchased" in MP3 format with no DRM. Once secured, simply back it up and keep it. DRM is the problem and I avoid it at all cost. Brad

[colterphoto1]

I just check out music from the local library and transfer to computer.

[Vital]

Itunes apparently uses a lossless file format so no information should be missing but when I compared it to the cd version of the same song I found it lacking enough to never want to pay for another itunes song again.

You can upload your cd in lossless and you won't hear a difference that I can tell but everything you buy from the Apple store is only MP3. They do not sell any lossless music via the Apple store.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

I not only love listening to music, but am a bibliophile. When eBooks became available, I jumped on board. Instead of taking up more walls with bookshelves of books, suddenly, instant library on an iPad. But my kids kept asking, "Where are all of those great hardback books you used to pay full price for, or get on discount?" "On my iPad!" The eBooks versions were so much cheaper . . . But, the price creep began . . . Up, up, up, to the point, it costs me more for some eBooks, than if I kill a tree for the same hardback. My kids loved those hardbacks, read them, traded them in for others, etc. I figured somewhere along the way a system of eBooks would catch up where I could email the eBooks I paid full price for, while saving a rain forest. Uh, . . . Nope. Took me a while, but, basically, I was RENTING books for full price in an electronic format, unable to pass them on (save for a Kindle short-term book loan, when available) as a gift to share. What a scam! Now I have gone back to hard copies. And I don't keep them any longer than reading them. Rather than taking up valuable space on my iDevice, I get a great smile and thank you when I give a physical book away. And, I like using iTunes . . . AFTER I buy a great CD and rip a copy for myself.

No one will ever convince me that copying a CD I paid for and then giving the CD away violates "fair use," against which, not artists, but the parasite music label moguls have argued.

And I have to thank the labels execs and their lawyers themselves for reawakening me to hardbacks, CDs, and the joy of vinyl . . . And the satisfaction of passing on a physical version of artistic media to people I care for. That smile and thank you at that moment is a lot more satisfying than renting media at full price and pretending I have purchased anything. And, unless you are planning on dying soon, your rental only lasts as long as the most recent format. Sorry for stating the obvious . . . Just felt the need to vent.

I read a lot. I have this service. It is about $400 per month. I can read all of the books that I want, I pick them online and they are waiting for me at a brick and mortar building to pick up, hardcover books no less. I return the book when I am done and get another one. Turns out I was paying for this service since I bought my first home over 20 years ago so I decided to start using it.

[skonopa]

After reading through this thread, some serious clarification needs to be made here.

As for iTunes, concentrating on only the music portion of the iTunes Store, as this does not apply to movies, TV shows, apps, etc...

Prior to April of 2009, all the music on iTunes was formatted into AAC 128kbps. In addition, it was 'encrypted' under Apple's "Fairplay" DRM scheme. If your music was purchased during that time, then you are pretty much stuck and cannot really 'transfer' it, at least not without resorting to hacks and work-arounds to get past the DRM scheme.

After April of 2009, Apple decided to completely drop DRM on the files as well as up the quality to 25kbps, although still AAC format (not "MP3" - there is a difference). If you bought all your music after that, it is simple matter of copying your music into somebody else's iTunes library, thus 'transfering' it.

Now as for ripping CD's through iTunes, by default, iTunes uses 128kbps AAC, but you can go into the program and change the settings to use something else, such as Apple Lossless.

Personally, I've never bought anything through iTunes, prefering to stick with the more open MP3 format and FLAC format. Especially considering that I have some devices, such as my Via!DJ music server, that will not support AAC. I especially avoided any 'DRMed' services like the plague. Sorry, but I want to own my music, not rent it!

For any downloads that I did buy, the vast majority of what I got, I have gotten it through eMusic, which uses straight-up, non-DRMed MP3 format (I believe 256kbps). I also like getting through sources such as Mindawn, which offers it in FLAC. I've even gotten albums from Bandcamp, which often offers them in FLAC as well. Of course, if I can get it, I would rather just get the CD, but I really love the convience of digital downloads. Nice that I can get something within two clicks and "BAM!" there it is on my computer, ready to be played! Not having to wait several days or even weeks for something to arrive in the mail before I can listen to it (plus I've had orders get messed up, then the hassle of having to return/exchange something to 'get it right').

And yes, I do a weekly full backup of my server onto a backup server as well as an offsite backup, so if anything does go south, I have a ready backup (it has happended once already - damn near lost my entire music collection on my server, but thankfully, I had a full backup and was able to re-download the couple of files that did end up going missing (that were newer than the last backup).

Maybe I am not as anal retentive as some are around here nor am I a 'format snob'. With the nice Pioneer Elite N-50 DAC that I have along with its ability to interpolate the music stream and 'fill in the missing peices" it does a really nice job of playing this material back and really sounds quite good (Pioneer calls it 'Sound Retriever', and it seems to work as advertised) . I don't feel like I am "missing" anything and found I can enjoy my music just as much whether it is coming from a 128kbps MP3 or from a gold-master CD pressing.

[Mike Lindsey]

Now as for ripping CD's through iTunes, by default, iTunes uses 128kbps AAC, but you can go into the program and change the settings to use something else, such as Apple Lossless.

How does one do that? I have never bought anything from itunes, but have downloaded about 400 CD's to my iphone. If I can rip them lossless, I would erase my entire library and start over.

Thanks,

Mike

[oldmako]

Simply right click on a song. In the pop up box select "create apple lossless version". Bingo.

I opened up individual albums and used the shift key to highlight the entire thing. Then delete the non lossless version. A bit of a pain, but worth it. Then change your preferences - import settings - to lossless and from now on anything you import will be lossless.

[Mike Lindsey]

Thanks, that seems to work.

Looking at the files they are about 10 times the size as the AAC format (42kb vs 4kb), which means if I convert my whole library it will be 170gb vs 17gb. I have a 32gb iPhone so thats not going to work.What is everybody else doing in that regard?

Mike

[Dennie]

Thanks, that seems to work.

Looking at the files they are about 10 times the size as the AAC format (42kb vs 4kb), which means if I convert my whole library it will be 170gb vs 17gb. I have a 32gb iPhone so thats not going to work.What is everybody else doing in that regard?

Mike

Choose your songs/playlists carefully and load the ones you want "this week" or "month". All of my music is ripped "lossless" and it sounds great where ever I plug it in.

Dennie

[CECAA850]

I read a lot. I have this service. It is about $400 per month. I can read all of the books that I want, I pick them online and they are waiting for me at a brick and mortar building to pick up, hardcover books no less. I return the book when I am done and get another one. Turns out I was paying for this service since I bought my first home over 20 years ago so I decided to start using it.

What am I missing here? You pay $400.00 a month to rent books? What's wrong with the library?

[oldmako]

My guess is that $400/mo is his rent or mortgage. That mailing address is what allows him to access the public library. But, that's just a guess.

As far as the size of the files, I gave up and purchased a 160G iPod. I have over 400G of music but I can pare it down to a "reasonable" level with the 160G iPod. I was planning on switching to the iPhone so I could eliminate one device, but the memory constraints led me to just blow that off. I use an android phone and an ipod.

[skonopa]

Now as for ripping CD's through iTunes, by default, iTunes uses 128kbps AAC, but you can go into the program and change the settings to use something else, such as Apple Lossless.

How does one do that? I have never bought anything from itunes, but have downloaded about 400 CD's to my iphone. If I can rip them lossless, I would erase my entire library and start over.

Thanks,

Mike

You can do what was already suggested. Another way is to go into "Edit->Preferences". In the dialog that appears, make sure that "General" is selected at the top. About two-thirds way down, there is an "Import Settings" button. Click that and another dialog appears. In the drop-down where it says "Import Using", select "Apple Lossless" and hit "OK" all the way back out to the main iTunes screen. From now on CDs you rip will be in Apple Lossless.

Now as for file sizes, Apple Lossless will take up considerably more space.

This is what audio typically takes up (assuming regular "Red Book" CD quality at 44.2KHz/16 bit sampling rates):

Full, uncompressed WAV or AIFF - about 10 Megabytes per minute of audio (thus a 5 minute song will take 50 megs)

FLAC (compressed, lossless) - about 5 megs per minute of audio (5 minute song takes 25 megs)

320kbps MP3 - About 2 megs per minute (5 minute song takes10 megs)

192kbps MP3 (what I consider the bare minimum to get decent quality) - about 1.5 Megs/minute (5 minutes = .5 megs)

128kbps MP3 - about 1 meg per minute (5 minutes - 5 megs).

I typically get everything in FLAC or at least 320kbps MP3 if at all possible. eMusic seems to deliver it in 256kpbs MP3. I do have a couple of albums in 128kbps MP3 as that is the only way I could get them. For example, the Brazillian progressive metal band, Ynis Vitrin put up thier album for free give-away as they had no intention of getting out on a label, but did not want to let all that music go to waste, but it was only 128kbps MP3. At least this Pioneer DAC that I have seems to do it justice though (pretty amazed at how good it actually sounded despite being 'only' 128kbps).

On my music server, it is not a big deal as I got something like 5 terabytes on the thing, but in the case of my iPhone, I pretty much down convert everything to 256kbps MP3 to fit on there. I also have a 160 gig iPod Classic, on which pretty much everything is 320kbps MP3. Considering that I typically listening it through earphones, though the in-car hookup on my head unit, or docked to my little Tivoli Audio office system, I am not that concerned about the actual quality. Sometimes, if you want to take all your tunes with you, you got to make compromises.

[Mike Lindsey]

I just converted my whole itunes library (300 cd's or so) to apple lossless, and it went from 17gb to 70gb. I might just buy a 160gb ipod and put it on there, and not update my iphone with music any longer.

Mike

[BBZink]

Agree, i have a ipodclassic for travel and car, all my music is in there in 198 apple format. sound great convienient. fit in the car, travel, office and summer holiday.

also get itunes watch, so new computer, reset download.

music server in the house and airport express to all my hifi, so with an ipad, i manage the music i have rent so far from itunes....

anyhow, i like old jazz and often the only places i could find those are on itunes.

i had a Hdrive crashes, and itunes match put all my music back on the new one in 3 days, pay a fee for extra uses of broadband, but cheaper than anything else.

also an apple tv on broadband with itunes match, cheap and easy to use.

i have 3 dacs, 1 rega, 1 esoteric and one california audio lab.

has for the sound, my old rega tt, is still doing marvelous job, but never as convienient as itunes technologies.

for me working 70 hours a week, simple is the best, i have no time to fool around to make everything work.

i just whished that instead of renting i was owning the music and could gave that to them as memory childhood and legacy as my father did with his lp's

Tpjrs

[BBZink]

excuse me for compressed text, klipsch forum and apple software, don't get along very well....!

Agree, i have a ipodclassic for travel and car, all my music is in there in 198 apple format. sound great convienient. fit in the car, travel, office and summer holiday.

also get itunes watch, so new computer, reset download.

music server in the house and airport express to all my hifi, so with an ipad, i manage the music i have rent so far from itunes....

anyhow, i like old jazz and often the only places i could find those are on itunes.

i had a Hdrive crashes, and itunes match put all my music back on the new one in 3 days, pay a fee for extra uses of broadband, but cheaper than anything else.

also an apple tv on broadband with itunes match, cheap and easy to use.

i have 3 dacs, 1 rega, 1 esoteric and one california audio lab.

has for the sound, my old rega tt, is still doing marvelous job, but never as convienient as itunes technologies.

for me working 70 hours a week, simple is the best, i have no time to fool around to make everything work.

i just whished that instead of renting i was owning the music and could gave that to them as memory childhood and legacy as my father did with his lp's

Tpjrs

[Utard]

One more reason to add to the list of reasons not to own anything made by Crapple.

[Utard]

Here is your average Apple customer.

[BBZink]

oh yes i understand, it is a sad thing that someone invented the light during stoneages! since then evolution frustrated our lifes!

[skonopa]

i just whished that instead of renting i was owning the music and could gave that to them as memory childhood and legacy as my father did with his lp's

Tpjrs

Actually you can! I see that you indicated that you got everything on iTunes Match. When you re-downloaded everything, you got it back in 256kbps AAC, which is also non-DRMed. In that case, you actually do own your music (it is not locked up behind DRM). You can share/copy/backup those files as you wish. What you should do is get an external harddrive and back everything up to that (you can get 500gig+ external harddrives really cheap these days). As long as you keep your library in sync with your backup, you can easily pass that on in the future if you like. I have a bunch of tracks that my father downloaded on my server as an "off-site" backup. I've actually used it once already when my parents got a new computer, but neglected to copy thier iTunes library off of it before wiping the drive. Between that backup and me pulling the music back off of thier iPod, I was able to completely restore everything. I made a new backup, so now I have it. It was actually easy for me to do, and this could easily happen with other brands of equipment, not just Apple (despite the bleating from the resident iHater here - seriously, what does that add to the conversation other than another place to spout the typical anti-Apple diatribe that nobody actually gives a $#!+ about anyway?)

[BBZink]

thanks for the tip! proceed. it will be!