I recently purchased an iTunes Plus song because I read that since iTunes Plus is DRM-free, it should play on my Sansa Fuze. However, that it doesn’t download in MP3 format. I searched for more information, and people have said that if I have an iTunes Plus song, I can convert it into MP3 format. I just have to right-click the song in iTunes and it’ll say convert to MP3. However, the only conversion it offers is “Create AAC Version”. I checked the song via Windows Explorer, and the song is in M4A format. How can I convert this, and does anyone else have this problem?
Easiest way is to burn it to a CD and Re Rip it as an mp3.
@conversionbox wrote:
Easiest way is to burn it to a CD and Re Rip it as an mp3.
How do I do that on Windows? I burned the song onto a CD-RW, reinserted the CD, and then opened Windows Media Player. When I clicked Rip, it didn’t recognize the CD as a rippable disc.
A CD RW is not good for ripping sometimes. Try ripping into an MP3 in Itunes
Don’t burn it to a CD. The only thing that can rip it and retain the tags is iTunes, and it’ll just re-rip it to m4a format (at a lower bitrate than the original!). The reason is this: your import format is set to AAC. You just need to change that.
Go to Edit->Preferences, click on the Advanced tab, then below that the Importing tab. Change “Import using” to MP3 Encoder. I’d recommend you change the setting to a “Custom” setting of 256kbps and check “Use Variable Bit Rate”.
Then when you right-click on the song in iTunes, you should have the “Convert Selection to MP3” option. It will give you two copies (one m4a, one mp3) in the same directory. You’ll have to make sure you get the right copy on the Fuze, and don’t get the AAC copy (that will just waste space on your Fuze).
Message Edited by bdb on 03-06-2009 09:14 PM
@bdb wrote:
Go to Edit->Preferences, click on the Advanced tab, then below that the Importing tab. Change “Import using” to MP3 Encoder. I’d recommend you change the setting to a “Custom” setting of 256kbps and check “Use Variable Bit Rate”.
No importing tab (or any other for that matter…) Now what?
nb
NEVER MIND! i FOUND IT UNDER THE GENERAL TAB AND IT WORKED!!! WOW, WAY TOO MUCH TIME SPENT ON THIS! The only problem I had was that two of the files were “protected” and could not be converted. Is there a way to tell which of the myriad iTunes files for the same song are or are not protected??
Message Edited by nbanner on 03-22-2009 09:02 PM
@bdb wrote:
Don’t burn it to a CD. The only thing that can rip it and retain the tags is iTunes, and it’ll just re-rip it to m4a format (at a lower bitrate than the original!). The reason is this: your import format is set to AAC. You just need to change that.
Message Edited by bdb on 03-06-2009 09:14 PM
Most any conversion program should retain the tags as long as both the “from” and “to” formats support them.
I agree burning a CD as intermediate format is only for DRM’d songs. The OP said that didn’t work for him. Did you burn an audio CD or a data CD with the original files on it? If the latter, they will still be DRM’d.
@nbanner wrote:
Is there a way to tell which of the myriad iTunes files for the same song are or are not protected??
Yep. Right-click on the column headers (Artist, Album, etc), and you’ll be presented with a whole bunch of choices. Click on “Kind” to add that column. Click on the “Kind” column header to sort your songs by type. The “Kind” for files with DRM will be “Protected AAC”, for iTunes Plus they will be “Purchased AAC”, for imported files they will be “AAC audio file”. Everything but the “Protected” ones you can just convert to MP3, then you can drag the MPEG (MP3) files onto your Fuze. The Protected ones you have burn to a CD.
I wrote a longer description of the whole process here: link
