Music download tech help needed

[Alicat]

Calling Mshray or Urth or anyone else who can educate me.

I downloaded six tunes from the MSN music store. They ended up looking like MusicMatch files. I was not able to burn them to CD and when I tried putting them in iTunes library, I was not able to because they are apparently encrypted .wav files. What's going on? What can I do at this point? I want the tunes on CD and ideally on my iPod. Am I stuck just downloading from the Apple site? Seems like everything comes at a price.

Thanks.
Alicat

[ggould]

Calling Mshray or Urth or anyone else who can educate me.

I downloaded six tunes from the MSN music store. They ended up looking like MusicMatch files. I was not able to burn them to CD and when I tried putting them in iTunes library, I was not able to because they are apparently encrypted .wav files. What's going on? What can I do at this point? I want the tunes on CD and ideally on my iPod. Am I stuck just downloading from the Apple site? Seems like everything comes at a price.

Thanks.
Alicat

I'm guessing you need to use whatever media player MSN recommends for burning to CD, then you can rip the CD to MP3 or AAC which you can put on your iPod.  If you like your iPod, just stick to iTunes and buy stuff off the iTunes store.

[urth]

Calling Mshray or Urth or anyone else who can educate me.

I downloaded six tunes from the MSN music store. They ended up looking like MusicMatch files. I was not able to burn them to CD and when I tried putting them in iTunes library, I was not able to because they are apparently encrypted .wav files. What's going on? What can I do at this point? I want the tunes on CD and ideally on my iPod. Am I stuck just downloading from the Apple site? Seems like everything comes at a price.

Thanks.
Alicat

I'm guessing you need to use whatever media player MSN recommends for burning to CD, then you can rip the CD to MP3 or AAC which you can put on your iPod.  If you like your iPod, just stick to iTunes and buy stuff off the iTunes store.

I think what Geoff is suggesting will work.

For future reference, here's a chart that will tell you what online music stores work with your iPod:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6490_7-5140299.html

[mshray]

Calling Mshray or Urth or anyone else who can educate me.

I downloaded six tunes from the MSN music store. They ended up looking like MusicMatch files. I was not able to burn them to CD and when I tried putting them in iTunes library, I was not able to because they are apparently encrypted .wav files. What's going on? What can I do at this point? I want the tunes on CD and ideally on my iPod. Am I stuck just downloading from the Apple site? Seems like everything comes at a price.

Thanks.
Alicat

When you say they look like MusicMatch files, is that because they have a little MusicMatch icon in front when you see them in your folder?  That merely indicates that MusicMatch is the default player for that file type.  Click on View on the top toolbar & select Details instead of List, and I'm pretty sure that the file type will be .wma, which is the Microsoft proprietary file type, just as .aac is the Apple proprietary file type, and they are mutually exclusive.  iPods don't play .wma & Windows based players don't play .aac.  

What Geoff says is the only way around it, but you are likely to lose enough sonic quality that you won't like it.

[Alicat]

Thanks. I'll try again to burn to CD. Doing this stuff after midnight probably isn't a great idea. Too tired. Lesson learned about files types and compatibility.

[ggould]

What Geoff says is the only way around it, but you are likely to lose enough sonic quality that you won't like it.

Unless the burn process is done shitty, she should be able to rip as high a quality of MP3 as she wants (use the preferences Ali) so, this reminds me of Bob Marley, "Burning and Lootin'" but I guess it's "Burning and Ripping" instead!

[mshray]

What Geoff says is the only way around it, but you are likely to lose enough sonic quality that you won't like it.

Unless the burn process is done shitty, she should be able to rip as high a quality of MP3 as she wants (use the preferences Ali) so, this reminds me of Bob Marley, "Burning and Lootin'" but I guess it's "Burning and Ripping" instead!

Here's the problem:  mp3, aac & wma aren't just different but equal file types, they also correspond to different codecs (compression/decompression schemes).  By definition a codec converts a large .wav file into a much smaller file and the laws of physics dictate that a little bit is lost in the process.  If you go up and down between between .wav & only one codec the resulting 2nd generation .wav will have a little less fidelity than the original .wav, but this won't be cummulative over mulitple iterations.  However if you go up and down between different codecs you lose a little bit of different stuff each time & it IS cummulative.  This may or may not be something that you notice, depending on how picky an audiophile you are & the fidelity of your listening equipment, but do it enough times & it will degrade the overall sonic quality.  I have heard that this is worst when trying to go between .wma & .aac, less so when going between either & .mp3.

[ggould]

What Geoff says is the only way around it, but you are likely to lose enough sonic quality that you won't like it.

Unless the burn process is done shitty, she should be able to rip as high a quality of MP3 as she wants (use the preferences Ali) so, this reminds me of Bob Marley, "Burning and Lootin'" but I guess it's "Burning and Ripping" instead!

Here's the problem:  mp3, aac & wma aren't just different but equal file types, they also correspond to different codecs (compression/decompression schemes).  By definition a codec converts a large .wav file into a much smaller file and the laws of physics dictate that a little bit is lost in the process.  If you go up and down between between .wav & only one codec the resulting 2nd generation .wav will have a little less fidelity than the original .wav, but this won't be cummulative over mulitple iterations.  However if you go up and down between different codecs you lose a little bit of different stuff each time & it IS cummulative.  This may or may not be something that you notice, depending on how picky an audiophile you are & the fidelity of your listening equipment, but do it enough times & it will degrade the overall sonic quality.  I have heard that this is worst when trying to go between .wma & .aac, less so when going between either & .mp3.

I understand the point, the Deadhead world is full of picky audiophiles that can't stand any version of MP3, but my experience has been that most people don't notice a disc that's been coded/decoded/recoded, at least if done right.  I have heard lots of bad MP3's and find that iTunes seems to be a pretty good MP3 generator.  Hey, CD's are cheap, try it out!  Ali will let us know how the experiment worked out.

[Alicat]

No Fuc$@!ing luck. I have media player 10 and can play the tunes but they won't burn to CD. Worthless piece of MSN crap.

[ggould]

No Fuc$@!ing luck. I have media player 10 and can play the tunes but they won't burn to CD. Worthless piece of MSN crap.

try looking here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10/faq.aspx#7_0

[ggould]

seems like an appropriate song.  If anyone has this digitally, you know where to find me!  Ah, the curse of vinyl.

[ggould]

not sure if this is the best topic to post, but I found this link at an official Boz Scaggs web site:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/boz_scaggs/Music/Can%20I%20Make%20It%20Last%20Or%20Will%20It%20Just%20Be%20Over.MP3

I suggest you just right-click on the link if you like it and download it.  it works real well meditatively with a picture like this:

http://www.ggould.com/sunsets/la_paz_sunset+smoker.jpg

or any of my other corny sunset pix here:

http://www.ggould.com/sunsets/

these are large images, and on certain browsers appear too large.

[Gazoo]

Can an iTunes user help me out here?  I used to have no problem exporting my iTunes library into an Excel spreadsheet, but it's not working now and I can't figure out why.  The "Export Library" in iTunes generates an .xml file that my Excel is not converting correctly - I get a bunch of garbled programmer's code.  Any guidance appreciated!

[mshray]

Can't help with Gaz's issue, but for those of you who might think of getting a Zune, check this out, because I think this is going to be big news:  Zune Pass, MSFT's answer to Rhapsody (unlimited tunes from a library of millions for $14.95/mo, but the tracks are DRM'd so you can't copy them - in case you didn't know) has upped the ante.  Now for no additional charge you get to keep 10 songs/month without the DRM.  So you can burn them to CD, etc.

Check out the deets here: http://www.zuneluv.com/ (my friend Paul runs this site)

[Lightnin' Rod]

Can an iTunes user help me out here?  I used to have no problem exporting my iTunes library into an Excel spreadsheet, but it's not working now and I can't figure out why.  The "Export Library" in iTunes generates an .xml file that my Excel is not converting correctly - I get a bunch of garbled programmer's code.  Any guidance appreciated!

Hmm, they must have changed formats in a recent update -- iTunes is constantly telling me about updates, kind of annoying.  I haven't updated in a while, but I can take a look.  Anyway, there is probably some freeware apps out there somewhere that can read the xml and turn it into a comma or tab delimited file that Excel can read.  I'll look around when I have some free time.