How to Play iTunes Songs on Non-iPods
Tue Nov 7, 2006 6:30PM EST
See Comments (8)
A reader writes: I just got a Samsung K5 for my birthday, but I bought almost all the tunes on my desktop on iTunes. How can I play the songs I bought on iTunes on the Samsung K5?
Though the answer to this question has been covered before—see Gina's link-tastic post from earlier this year—it bears repeating, if only to break the stranglehold that iPod and iTunes have on digital music.
The good news is that it's completely possible to (eventually) play your iTune-purchased tracks on a non-iPod player. The bad news is that it's a hassle and has some drawbacks.
But first the good news. Since the iTunes tracks in their purchased form will only play on iPods or in iTunes, you'll need to burn these tracks onto a CD using iTunes. Then you need to re-rip the tunes off the CD as MP3 files, either in iTunes or another music player. Since MP3 files have no restrictions, they'll easily transfer to a Samsung K5 or any other player, including your iPod!
And here's the bad news: Converting these tunes to MP3 will likely erase the song ID and album data, so you may well have to manually re-enter song titles. Annoying! And if you have more than 100 songs you want to convert, it'll be a pain to burn the dozens and dozens of CDs you'll need to make the switch. This method is good if you just want to move over a few songs onto a second player.
FYI, there are also some illegal alternatives for stripping the DRM off of iTunes-purchased tunes and subscription-service tunes, but I do not partake in or condone the practice for obvious reasons, so 'nuff said about that.
iTunes-purchased songs aside, there's also the matter of iTunes tracks you've ripped from your own CD collection. Regardless of the music software I'm using, I always rip all my CDs into MP3 format, which will play on just about any player. iTunes usually rips songs into AAC format by default, so make sure you switch the default for "Importing Music" to MP3 (it's in the Edit, Preferences, Advanced, then Importing menu). AAC files will play on some other players, but MP3s will play in pretty much all other players.
Lastly, consider buying tunes at eMusic, which only sells music in MP3 format.
Happy ripping, burning, and transferring!
Related links:
The Awful Truth About Downloaded Music
Hands-on with the Samsung K5
Comments on How to Play iTunes Songs on Non-iPods
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2 Posted by verx23 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:33PM EDT Report Abuse
All very helfpul except for the eMusic portion. eMusic is a good music site, but extremely limited in terms of volume. Fewer originals than one hopes for, and more later day recordings if hits by the same groups. It's a good deal, but after finding 20 or so tunes, you're done! While on their site, scan some of the reviews and you'll see whining by eMusic subscribers, too. Lastly, watch your credit card statement carefully: They have a tendency to double-bill.
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3 Posted by rajculver on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:27PM EDT Report Abuse
The real answer is ....don't. Don't buy music off of the internet. Why not? Because they are just selling you something that is actually free. But Jobs doesn't want anyone to know this because it interferes with his unending greed. Go to the digital radio streams, find the music you like and record it. The law is clear on this, if a song is broadcast on the radio you can legally record it for your own use. You may not share it or sell it or distibute it in any way (that includes P2P) BUT it is yours for free. This is the same for video, if you have a TV tuner card on your computer you may record any movie or TV show, anything that is broadcast is free to record as long as you do not distribute it in any way.
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4 Posted by tkenutz on Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:47PM EST Report Abuse
There is also a program called 'Tunebite' that easily removes the DRM software from the file and converts it to an MP3 with just the click of a button.
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5 Posted by recehc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:33PM EDT Report Abuse
Also, you can use iTunes itself... On iTunes, go to Edit Preferences and then click on the Advanced tab, after that choose Importing, and then select the MP3 Encoder option under "Import using". Then click Ok. After doing this, if you right-click on any song in your library, you should be able to see an option "Convert selection to MP3". Couldn't be any easier.
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6 Posted by blam_1120 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:09PM EDT Report Abuse
I use NoteBurner with iTunes together. NoteBurner installs virtual drive on the computer and then I can just choose NoteBurner as the CD burner in iTunes to burn my audio CD. After burning, all music is saved on virtual disc, actually the hard drive. Then I can simply transfer the music to my MP3 player.
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7 Posted by jamiaurora on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:28PM EDT Report Abuse
recehc post is correct. On my iTunes it was under edit, preferences, general tab, import settings, and then import using at the top...works like a charm without having to download coverters or extra software. Thanks recehc!
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8 Posted by yongxianghoo on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:57PM EDT Report Abuse
As the music in iTunes is encrypted with DRM, you cannot directly put it on any non-Apple MP3 player. The easiest way is to burn the music to an audio CD and then rip it back to Windows Media Player or a similar program as an MP3. Or you can get some software to help you. I use TuneClone to do this. Though not free, it is very well worth a try. Below is its step by step tutorial about how to get iTunes 8 music converted to MP3: http://www.tuneclone.com/itunes8-m4p-to-mp3.php
1 Posted by naruto_neji_hinata on Thu Nov 9, 2006 8:25AM EST Report Abuse
okay what you do is you go to the web site audacity.sourceforge.net download the audacity 1.2.5 and after you download that download the LAME and put it in a place you can remember, now go on audacity and got project,import audio, take you itunes and goto file export as mp3, and it should ask you for you LAME find it and you itunes will be exported a a mp3 file