I have never used iTunes. I don't own an iPod (have a Creative Zen). Have never paid money for an mp3 or similar digital download.

Unfortunately, I am contemplating having to buy an iTunes-only bonus track for an album that I actually bought the fucking CD, and I want to know what I'm going to be getting myself into.

- How much is the iTunes software going to take over my computer?
- Is it necessary to have an iPod and/or iTunes to play songs downloaded from the iTunes store?
- How difficult is it to convert an AAC file (or whatever the fuck they're called) to mp3? Do you lose any fidelity in the process?
- How does the DRM on iTunes downloads work? What are its restrictions?


Thanks in advance. I hate Apple, and I hate the idea of paying for lossy music. Fuckers.

Don't go iTunes for that, even if it is Neil Young. For a piece of software that you'll use simply to play your music, it uses far too much of your resources.

We'll figure out another way to get you this song, David.

The problem with getting a song on itunes is I think the copy protection makes you only play it on itunes, and YOUR itunes for that matter. Like I don't think you can install itunes, download the song, then use winamp to play the song and never use itunes again. I would suggest either stealing it from the internet somewhere if it's out there, or buying it on itunes, and then using a piece of software that will record sound on your pc as you play it on your pc to make a copy of it that way. Or, use a program like Audacity and use itunes to burn the song to a cd, then get a discman or some other cd player and use an 1/8th inch male to 1/8th inch male cable to output the sound from the cd player into the line/mic in on your computer and record it as it plays. If done right it could sound pretty good and not lose too much fidelity.

BTW, it's "I Am A Child" from the Neil Young live at Canterbury House 1968 show.

PD, I've always burned the track to a music disc and then reimported it to iTunes as a different format.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1550

I'm not really much of an audiophile so I'm not sure about how you could get around the compression when you reimport, but I think WAV is lossless.

I could do that, but it would probably involve some fidelity loss. The conversion from aac to wav to burn the disc is a transcode. The rip to wav wouldn't lose anything, but it's already lossy from starting out as an aac file.

BTW, Rusties have come to the rescue, and emailed me copies of both tracks I was seeking. I don't know if they're as high quality as are available, but it's good enough for me for the time being.

Thanks for the help.

I'm just glad you didn't need to turn to iTunes after resisting for all these years. Keep up the good fight, David.

There are DRM removers all over the net that work, through using Google. chud probably has a better idea on this then I have. But I have an iPod and have bought some KOL on iTunes store and was able to remove DRM protection no troubles. And converting from AAC to MP3 would be controlled using SUPER converter. That way you can convert to whatever format and bitrate you desire. But again, your fidelity loss would probably occur during the conversion, but probably not during DRM removal.

If you want some linkys for SUPER & a DRM remover that I know of on the net, lmk. If you are willing to risk it of course. I run iTunes fine on Windows 7, 2gb ram with a shitty 256mb graphics card. iTunes is probably the better of the programs I run.

Edit: Read the post two above and found it's solved, awesome news.

I've never used a DRM remover.

Are any iTunes tracks still sold with DRM? I thought they'd done away with all of it.

Personally, I love iTunes, it's been a great way to manage all my digital music. If it hogs resources, you probably need a new computer.

All of my tracks and purchases are in the iTunes Plus format, so no more DRM there. Of course, they've got your account associated with the tracks, but you can play those files anyway you want (any software package) and do whatever with them.

The problem is it is coded terribly. AFAIK it still isn't multithreaded and requires more RAM then it should.

I enjoy iTunes.

Soon, I return to the world of Winamp.

Winamp 4 life.

whats so good about winamp

Everything.