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Ensuring you ONLY get Mp3 from itunes store

S

schmintan

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 1, 2007
181
0
I downloaded a few albums from itunes today. i thought most stuff up there was now standard mp3 and not silly proprietary formats. alas the albums are in m4a format, and thus unreadable by a 3rd party application i use to slow down the tunes so i can learn them easier.

How do i ensure that i am downloading only standard mp3s from itunes? i cant find a menu setting, and i cant find a column to show me the format of the song im downloading.
 
m4a (AAC) is not a proprietary format, it is the MPEG-4 standrad audio codec, and the successor to MP3. The iTunes Store does not carry music in the MP3 format, since it is a technically inferior codec with fewer features and debatably worse quality. If you need MP3 versions of your songs, you can create a .mp3 duplicate with a program such as Max. (You can also do it in iTunes itself, but its a lot clunkier) Note that this version will be a transcode of an already lossy file, and will be of dubious audio quality.
 
Consultant said:
MP4 is a decade newer than MP3. I guess someone misses floppy drives.
Click to expand...

MP3 is more widely supported, and since storage is so cheap nowadays, the fact you have to use a higher bitrate to match the quality of AAC really isn't a big deal. So yes, some of us do prefer MP3 even if it's a decade old. It doesn't even compare to floppies. There's no big advantage to AAC over MP3 while there's a huge advantage to thumb drives or optical media over floppies.

OP, Amazon's music store is MP3, and usually cheaper than iTunes too. I'd recommend using that.
 
Consultant said:
AAC is MP4

MP4 is a decade newer than MP3. I guess someone misses floppy drives.
Click to expand...

MP4 may be newer and better than MP3 but the stereo in my truck will only read MP3 so there is still a reason to keep the old work horse around
 
iTunes (menubar) > Preferences > Import Settings > Import Using "MP3 Encoder" (select appropriate settings) > Press Ok.


Advanced (menubar) > Create MP3 version.
 
Converting youtube to mp3 files

i download youtube music with firefox download helper.then when i drag it into i tunes and try the mp3 converter option it is shaded out.the only way i can do it is to burn to disc then re-im port to i tunes.i can convert mpeg to mp3 no problem.but when i try this with an mp4 the converter is disabled or something.Any ideas how to get around this?I supose I need some converter.I thought i could do it with I Tunes.I have a macbook pro 10.41.thanks
 
Are you all cursed with tin ears? Converting lossy to lossy leads to serious quality loss. As for youtube videos, they're of poor quality to begin with.
 
enberg said:
Are you all cursed with tin ears? Converting lossy to lossy leads to serious quality loss. As for youtube videos, they're of poor quality to begin with.
Click to expand...

Meh. We're not talking about dubbing cassettes here... yes, lossy to lossy conversion does degrade sound quality, but most people listen to music through crappy speakers or headphones as background anyways. The convenience far outweighs the hassles of CDs or very cumbersome (ie large) lossless formats / streaming issues with them. Serious audiophiles probably only deal in lossless... most of us are pretty happy with .mp3 music as the background of our lives. In the car I listen to XM, which is even worse, but still light years ahead of FM in terms of content and quality. In other words, you can keep your golden ears, I'll enjoy the music with the rest of my life around it, at a minimum of hassle.
 
I don't think anybody said that mp3 is going away. The OP asked about "proprietary formats" which mp4 is not. If the OP wants mp3 go to the amazon store. And OP please get your facts straight about proprietary formats before making such comments. One last thing, the format is also supported in other 3rd party applications, maybe not the one you are using, but it is supported.

Here is something for you to read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

Granted it is wiki but you can get a good start here. Enjoy. :)
 
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