Converting your iTunes songs for your generic MP3 player
Step by Step guide to converting iTunes to MP3
If you have a large iTunes library and a player that is not an iPod then you have landed yourself in the middle of a quandary.
You have a lot of songs that it seems you can not put onto your player. Before you go mad, run back to the store and chuck your new MP3 player at the nearest member of the sales staff, take a few deep calming breaths and keep on reading. There is a way to get your songs onto your MP3 player.
You just have to convert them to MP3’s.
Don’t click off, I know it sounds crazy but your iTunes songs aren’t MP3’s. At least they aren’t yet. We can make them better, faster, more compatible than ever before. OK, mad scientist leanings aside we are going to go over how you can convert your songs for use on any generic MP3 player.
Step 1: Open iTunes, and create a new play list. I’m calling mine ‘conversion songs’, but you can title yours whatever you like.
Step 2: Move the songs you want to your MP3 player. The order isn’t really an issue.
Step 3: Whip out your spindle of Cd’s and start burning. Burn all of your songs and then close iTunes. Resist the temptation to burn as data files.
Step 4: Make a folder on your hard drive, preferably the desktop. I will be naming mine “MP3 music” but once again go for whatever suit you are comfortable with.
Step 5: Open the CD, but don’t play it. Drag your tracks over to the newly minted file we just made. Repeat this process with all of your Cd’s.
Step 6: Single click on a song file to select in then right click and select open. From the list of programs select Windows media player. Let your song run for a few seconds to check and then you can stop it and move on to the next song in your file. Of course if you want to make life easy instead of choosing each file individually you can choose “edit” then “select all” to play all of the songs at once.
Step 7: Windows media player can not play iTunes song formats so it will have to convert your files to MP3’s in order to play them. Now your files in the folder are MP3 files. Find the instructions that come with your MP3 player and move the songs over as per their instructions.
Step 8: Try out your MP3 player and enjoy the songs. I know this sounds like it is a bit of a pain, and it is, but it works, and you can enjoy your music without shelling out 50 bucks for an iPod.
*I know this sounds very costly, but if you don’t want to use 30 CDR’s to move your music then you have a few other choices you; could use and reuse a CDRW to move the songs, you can use a virtual CD drive like CD emulator or Note Burner to simulate CD’s without having to burn onto physical disks, or if you are more inclined you could search the net and find a quality iTunes to MP3 converter software application. Be aware however, many such converters come with spyware and those that don’t will not be free of charge.
Related Reading:
>» An introduction to media streaming
>» How To Upgrade Windows Media Player?
>» Comparing the leading media player software
>» Nine things you might not have tried in Windows Media Player 11
