Sharing Music?

[Rick Meyer]

Actually, this question could go in the technical thread I know...but which? DVX? HVX? And though its an audio question its less about hardware and more about software...and, since the CAFE gets the most traffic...I thought I'd post it here.....

I went to MP3 Rocket and downloaded their software for one lump fee. Not a bad gig. But now I want to take the songs that I've downloaded and paid for and throw them on an iPOD...but the iPOD is not allowing this to happen. I've searched all over the website and APPLES website...but no luck.

Anyone have any idea how to make these music tunes from MP3 Rocket compatible with the iPOD?

Thanks gang!
Rick

[MalcolmOng]

Heres a free but probably illegal way to bypass the DRM. It's probably rather tedious though, but it should work if you're determined enough.

http://www.nowsmart.com/arwizard/

Download this, then record the song onto a seperate MP3. Therefore you'll have a DRM free mp3 file with as little quality loss as possible

[Rick Meyer]

thanks so much. im definitely going to try this.

[TwistedLincoln]

In the future, I'd recommend that you not purchase music that is loaded with DRM... of course, you are using the iPod, so it may already be too late for you :D

[Rick Meyer]

Thats the problem...trying to pull this stuff into iPOD....Offhand...side note...does anyone know if PC based MP3 players...creative labs, iRiver, samsung have less compatibility issues? if so...F this iPod....

[Loki]

why not buy music off the iTunes store?

[Rick Meyer]

Because, I have purchased MP3 rocket already and I love it. I have many more options...music sound fx, etc. And, I've already built up quite the library.

I don't want to have to RE-PURCHASE these things.

Add to that, I was looking for few obscure songs last week and needed to download MP3 because iTUNES didnt have it.

[Steve_Arm]

Record them as they play with a wave editor and resave them at the same bit rate (?)

[TwistedLincoln]

Thats the problem...trying to pull this stuff into iPOD....Offhand...side note...does anyone know if PC based MP3 players...creative labs, iRiver, samsung have less compatibility issues? if so...F this iPod....

Any of those players you listed have much less compatibility issues. Assuming, of course you are using music files that aren't loaded with DRM. DRM is always a bad thing...

The main issue with the iPod is it's desire to force you to use iTunes for every aspect of its use. I can hook my iRiver (with the official UMS firmware patch) up to my PC's USB port, and it shows up as a mass storage device. All I have to do is drag and drop the audio files I want. And the best part: there is nothing stopping me from transfering those files back to my PC should I need them again (or on another unit). I had a customer once who had 4gb of MP3s on her iPod, and when her hard drive died she expected to be able to pull them off and load them on the new drive... it turned out to be a bit of a headache...

The non-iPod players also have the nice advantage of being cross-platform: as long as the unit works as a Universal Mass Storage Device, you can add or remove files from Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc. without difficulty.

Should you have 20 minutes and 54 seconds of free time, listen to my audio show regarding the choices involved with choosing an MP3 Player: Choosing an MP3 Player (http://www.twistedlincoln.com/mainpage/twistedlincolntalk/audio-feed-semp3)

Oh, and by the way, I beg you...please don't buy your music from iTunes. If people would stop buying content that was loaded with DRM, media distributors would think twice about using it. I certainly support paying for what you use, but I'd rather have nothing than a file crippled with DRM...

Oh, and for reference: my iRiver player is the IFP-899. It can be flashed with the UMS (universal mass storage) firmware instead of the stock firmware (that makes you use iRiver's software to load songs). You can get instructions for the re-flash on iRiver's site here: IFP-899 UMS Firmware (http://www.iriver.com/html/support/download/sudw_view.asp?searchProductIdx=34&searchCategoryIdx=&searchString=&page=1&idx=651&tmpSearchProductIdx=&tmpSearchCategoryIdx=&tmpSearchString=)