Itunes Questions

Atomised

Hi,

I've just downloaded itunes even though i've no IPOD and don't want to buy any music (I want free podcasts).
It's a basic question but where is my library now stored? On itunes site?
And what exactly is it converting my songs to?

Marty_J

Atomised wrote: »

Hi,

I've just downloaded itunes even though i've no IPOD and don't want to buy any music.
It's a basic question but where is my library now stored? On itunes site?

The default location is (assuming you're using Windows) My Documents > My Music.

If you right-click on any track, select "Get Info", and then go to the Summary tab, it'll tell you at the bottom where the file is stored.

davester

if you move the file from its defaulted location then you have to remove the file off the itunes playlist and then drag it back on.

Marty_J

Atomised wrote: »

And what exactly is it converting my songs to?

iTunes only automatically converts your music when you're importing a CD, or importing WMA files. In both instances, it'll convert to whatever format you have specified in Edit > Preferences. The default is AAC.

bat999

Those thousands of songs, what format are they in?

Marty_J

Atomised wrote: »

I'm even more confused now and think i've made a big mistake. I like WMP but I think itunes is overriding it. And taking ages copying everything , i've only got a couple of thousand songs.

If those "couple of thousand songs" are in wma format, they will take a very long time to import to iTunes.

The new Zune software is quite nice, and it will be able to use your wma files without converting them.

andyaj0807

To make it easy,

If you download anything on itunes, it will show up on "purchased" on the left hand side of itunes or the "library" section under "podcasts".

If you would like to know the file location, find the podcast you have downloaded, right click and then click "Show in Windows Explorer".

The format you download music files are normaly a format called .m4a

Its very very annoying because you can only copy and paste your music to a different computer a certain amount of times.

But you can convert the file format, just google it... I use media-convert.com to convert my itunes songs so i can put it on my mp3 player.

andyaj0807

andyaj0807 wrote: »

To make it easy,

If you download anything on itunes, it will show up on "purchased" on the left hand side of itunes or the "library" section under "podcasts".

If you would like to know the file location, find the podcast you have downloaded, right click and then click "Show in Windows Explorer".

The format you download music files are normaly a format called .m4a

Its very very annoying because you can only copy and paste your music to a different computer a certain amount of times.

But you can convert the file format, just google it... I use media-convert.com to convert my itunes songs so i can put it on my mp3 player.

Just to add, you can only put itunes files on a ipod... You can convert itunes files to put onto a mp3 player.. Very easy to do!

andyaj0807

Atomised wrote: »

My songs are still on WMP though? I'm about to charge my zen and don't want to find that i've erased all of the files.
Will I be able to download podcasts without setting up an account?

On itunes, you need to set up an account to download files. But you do not need to put any card details in unless you actualy want to buy files. If you just want to download free files, you can download itunes for free and set up a free account, no credit card details needed! I do like itunes because there is soo much you can download and its quick and easy but the only thing i dont like is the format you download in, but, easily convertable!

andyaj0807

Also, warning: itunes will automaticly convert all your music files to .m4a ... So if you have music files on your computer NOT downloaded from itunes, it will convert them to the itunes format... If will only do that once when you install and first run itunes

Marty_J

andyaj0807 wrote: »

The format you download music files are normaly a format called .m4a

Its very very annoying because you can only copy and paste your music to a different computer a certain amount of times.

But you can convert the file format, just google it... I use media-convert.com to convert my itunes songs so i can put it on my mp3 player.

m4a is simply the file extension iTunes uses for AAC files. Songs purchased from the iTunes Store do not have DRM on them, so you can do whatever you like with them. If you have an mp3 player that can't play AAC files, you can convert them in iTunes. Just go to Edit > Preferences and change your import settings to mp3. Then, right click on the file(s) you want to convert, and select "Create mp3 version".

If you can't play AAC files though, I would question the logic behind purchasing songs from a store that only sells AAC files. It would probably be a lot easier for you to purchase your music from Amazon or Play instead.

On itunes, you need to set up an account to download files.

You're really complicating matters. The OP doesn't want to purchase any music from iTunes.

Also, warning: itunes will automaticly convert all your music files to .m4a ... So if you have music files on your computer NOT downloaded from itunes, it will convert them to the itunes format... If will only do that once when you install and first run itunes

iTunes only does that for wma files. It will not automatically convert any other format.