Section 56. Create an MP3 CD from Purchased AAC Music


56. Create an MP3 CD from Purchased AAC Music

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

20 Purchase Audio from the iTunes Music Store

54 Create an MP3 CD


SEE ALSO

64 Customize Importing Options

94 Back Up Your Music to CD or DVD


This task's subject is a touchy one. Apple intends for you to build your music library using the AAC format to import your CDs, and using the protected AAC format to purchase music from the iTunes Music Store . Yet with the proliferation of in-dash and portable CD players that read the MP3 CD format, it's hard to ignore the fact that music acquired this way won't play in these players. You own the music rightfully; why, then, shouldn't you be able to create CDs that let you play your own legitimately purchased music with the convenience your MP3 CD player affords you? Apple's recommendation that you buy an iPod to play your AAC music is small consolation when your choice is between using your iPod with a clunky tape adapter or FM transmitter in the car, or burning a nice crisp MP3 CD with a professional-looking jewel case insert to play in your cutting-edge in-dash MP3 CD player.

56. Create an MP3 CD from Purchased AAC Music


It should be fairly clear that Apple would be foolish to allow users to create unprotected MP3 CDs directly from purchased AAC music; such a feature would essentially be an invitation to piracy. All a user would have to do would be to burn one of these data discs, and he'd have an instant selection of high-quality MP3 files ready to transmit over the file-sharing networks. The record labels would never have signed on with iTunes if it had contained such a feature.

Yet you can create regular music CDs (using songs in uncompressed CDDA format) from your purchased AAC music. Why is that?

Well, the difference is that burning an uncompressed music CD creates unprotected music at a much slower pace than converting AAC files directly to MP3 would. A would-be pirate has to burn the music CD, re-import the dozen or so songs from it, and repeat the process 12 times just to get the same number of freely copy-able songs he would have if he'd been able to directly create an MP3 CD with one click. This inconvenience, Apple has gambled, is a sufficient barrier to piracy to make the iTunes Music Store a viable business proposition while remaining friendly to law- abiding users like yourself.

But you still want to be able to burn those purchased songs to an MP3 CD you can play in the car.

This task describes how to accomplish that goal. However, use it with caution; remember that you're treading the ragged edge of what's allowable under the "Terms of Sale" of the iTunes Music Store to which you agreed. These terms read in part, "Any burning or exporting capabilities are solely an accommodation to you and shall not constitute a grant or waiver (or other limitation or implication ) of any rights of the copyright owners of any content, sound recording, underlying musical composition or artwork embodied in any Product." In other words, it was hard enough for Apple to get the labels to agree to let you burn even regular audio CDs. Don't abuse their trust by using these instructions to create unprotected music for anyone 's use but your own. If you do, remember that it's not just your iTunes Music Store account that's at stakeit's the still uncertain future of the legal music download industry. Help keep it viable by following the rules!

In this task, you'll convert your purchased AAC files to unprotected MP3 files by first burning them to uncompressed audio CDs in CDDA format and then re-importing them into iTunes in MP3 format. Then you can burn the MP3 CDs freely as described in 54 Create an MP3 CD . For this task, you'll need enough blank writable CD discs to hold all the AAC files you want to convert, written in uncompressed CDDA format with approximately 20 tracks to each disc, which you'll eventually discard. It's a wasteful process, but it's the only way to do it.

WEB RESOURCE

http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/legal/policies.html

The iTunes Music Store "Terms of Sale" are available at this direct URLas well as by clicking the Terms and Conditions button in your account information page at the iTunes Music Store.


1.
Create a Playlist Containing Music to Burn

Make a playlist containing the protected AAC songs you want to put on the disc. As discussed in 34 Create a Playlist , navigate into the library and drag songs from it into the playlist. Make the playlist as long as you want, up to a maximum of about 12 hours of total play length (as indicated by the readout at the bottom of the iTunes' window); if the playlist contains more than about 75 minutes of music, iTunes will allow you to burn the playlist across multiple discs. Be sure you have enough blank CD media to contain all the playlist's music in uncompressed CDDA form!

You can determine which of your tracks are in which format by displaying the Kind column in the track listing. See 71 Customize Which Information Columns Are Displayed for more information.

NOTE

There's no need to go through this burning process for songs in any format other than Protected AAC; if your songs are in regular (unprotected) AAC format or another format without DRM restrictions, see 66 Convert Audio Files to Other Formats for instructions on converting them to MP3 format within iTunes itself.

2.
Burn Audio CDs from the Playlist

Be sure iTunes is set up to burn audio CDs; to check this, open the iTunes' Preferences window (choose iTunes, Preferences on the Mac or Edit, Preferences in Windows) and click the Burning tab. Set the Disc Format option to Audio CD and click OK .

With the playlist selected, click the Burn button; insert a writable CD when prompted, and click Burn again to begin burning the playlist to the disc in uncompressed CDDA audio format. Insert more discs when prompted until the entire playlist is burned to CDs.

3.
Configure iTunes to Import in MP3 Format

The next step is to import the music back into iTunes, this time as unprotected MP3 files. Open the iTunes' Preferences window again. Click the Importing tab. Set the Import Using option to MP3 Encoder . From the Setting drop-down menu, choose an audio quality level for the imported files; the default, High Quality (160 kbps) , is generally sufficient, although you might want to choose a different quality level depending on your needs. Use the Custom setting to enable certain options such as Variable Bit Rate (VBR) recording. Click OK .

4.
Import the Audio CDs

One by one, insert the audio CDs that you just burned and import them by clicking the Import button (see 9 Import a Music CD into iTunes ). The track names should be filled in automatically by iTunes, because it remembers each disc that it burned by its unique combination of track lengths. Make sure that you import the CDs in the correct order in which you burned them; doing so makes the next step easier.

The newly imported songs are added to your library in parallel with the protected AAC versions of the same songs that already exist.

5.
Re-create the Playlist Using MP3 Files

Create a new playlist containing the MP3 files you just imported. An easy way to do this is as follows : in the Library view, scroll horizontally to the Date Added column and sort on that column by clicking its header. Click it again if necessary to sort the tracks in ascending order (earliest to latest). Scroll to the bottom of the song listing. Locate the selection of songs you just imported; the block of newly imported songs should be easily identifiable as all having been added within the last half- hour or so. Select all these songs by clicking the first one in the list (the earliest one you imported), scrolling to the end of the list, and holding down Shift as you click the last song in the listing.

Next, choose File, New Playlist From Selection . A new playlist appears in the Source pane, with the name untitled playlist . This name is selected so that you can type a new one. Enter a simple and short name for the new playlist; the name you type will become the volume name for the new MP3 CD you'll create. Press Return or Enter .

6.
Burn an MP3 CD from the Playlist

Select the newly created playlist and verify that its contents are the way you want themall MP3 files (identified in the Kind column as MPEG audio file ), not missing any songs you want, and arranged in the right order. If they're not, move songs around until they're sorted in the order you want them.

Open the iTunes Preferences window again and click the Burning tab. Set the Disc Format option to MP3 CD . Click OK .

Now burn the MP3 CD by clicking Burn . Insert a disc when prompted. The playlist is burned to the disc in unprotected MP3 format, suitable for playing in your car's MP3 CD unit or your portable disc playerany device that reads MP3 CDs. Just don't tell anybody where you heard how to do this .

NOTE

If the playlist is too long to fit on a single MP3 CD, iTunes offers to burn only the portion of the playlist that will fit or to allow you to cancel the operation and trim down the playlist yourself before burning it again. Make sure that the playlist doesn't exceed the 650 or 700 megabytes that your disc will hold.




iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap
iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672328992
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 152
Authors: Brian Tiemann

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