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September 14, 2005 4:49 AM

Why won't MP3's I downloaded not work with my iTunes?

I have a Mac and everytime I click on the song file, nothing happens. So what do I do?

posted by benkolb to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

First things first -

control-click on the file and choose "Get Info". Make sure that the file is more than 100 kilobytes in size [it's possible you downloaded an empty file]. Most mp3s are 2-10 megabytes.

Next, open iTunes and create a new playlist. Try dragging the file from your desktop into that playlist. If it refuses to appear, it's likely that it's corrupt in some way. You could try opening it with another music program (quicktime, macamp, VLC[?]), for further confirmation.

It's also possible that it's not really an mp3 - that it's a WindowsAudio file, say, which iTunes won't recognise, - that has been incorrectly named ".mp3".

Where did you get the mp3?
posted by Marquis at 5:07 AM on September 14, 2005

'I love my iPod," but I have had that problem too. I have a Dell DJ also, and I have downloaded some songs from MusicMatch that won't play on the iPod. The reason is, I am told, that those downloads have a copy protection of some sort, perhaps related to Microsoft [competitor with Apple of course]. However, I was told that these songs are not really MP3's; and that to play them I would need to convert them to that and then import them to iTunes. Yuck.

Then of course, one has the issue of playing iTune store downloads on the the regular, generic MP3 player like the DJ.

For all things iPod, I enjoy the iPod Lounge forum. Take a look. It is very comprehensive. For example, there is a thread here that may be helpful to you and me, on this topic.
posted by swlabr at 5:16 AM on September 14, 2005

An ipod can store/play any format that iTunes handles (natively).

MP3 (otherwise known as Mpeg 1, layer 3)
AAC (with or without copy protection - this is what the Apple itunes store has)
AIF or WAV (PCM encoded, uncompressed audio)

As far as I'm aware, there are no such things as a copy protected MP3.

The MP3 you have is either damaged, or wasn't downloaded.

Quicktime can play many media types, including MP3s...you should try to open up the MP3 with quicktime to see if it actually works...I'm willing to bet/guess that it doesn't.
posted by filmgeek at 5:34 AM on September 14, 2005

You might also try dragging the files to your Library, which usually will convert them into whatever usable format you have set. Where are you downloading these from? Is it a consistent problem for every mp3 or just ones from a certain place?
posted by klangklangston at 6:37 AM on September 14, 2005

quote:
"Napster 2.0, Musicmatch, and BuyMusic.com offer songs in Windows Media Audio, or WMA, format which means they are incompatible with Apple's iPod which can play Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format files from Apple's iTunes Music Store.

Josh Bernoff, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that Apple wants to use its upcoming music service as an incentive to sell iPods," reports Katie Dean for Wired News. "'The problem is that nobody can be compatible with an iPod without help from Apple,' Bernoff said. 'Apple has very little incentive to support that because they would rather sell iPods than support anyone else's device.'"


posted by swlabr at 6:37 AM on September 14, 2005

I have a Mac and everytime I click on the song file, nothing happens. So what do I do?

Did you try double clicking the song file or pressing the play button?
posted by gyc at 9:37 AM on September 14, 2005

Too bad WMA sucks too. Buncha jerks.
posted by klangklangston at 10:06 AM on September 14, 2005

... incompatible with Apple's iPod which can play Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format files from Apple's iTunes Music Store.

That's a little deceptive. iPods certainly can play AAC tracks; however, they can also play MP3s. MP3 is far and away the most common format for encoding music.

"'The problem is that nobody can be compatible with an iPod without help from Apple,' Bernoff said. 'Apple has very little incentive to support that because they would rather sell iPods than support anyone else's device.'"

This is an out-and-out falsehood. You do need a license to market an MP3 encoder, but that license comes from Fraunhofer, not from Apple.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:54 PM on September 14, 2005

swlabr -- The context of that quote has been debunked a million times over. Any company can release audio that can be played on an iPod. The accurate statement would be that "No DRM-protected audio file can be created without help from Apple." Apple has not licensed their specific DRM protection to third parties and that is the only copy protection the iPod supports.

You can, however, play any mp3, wav, or aac file that is encoded to the standard. Protected AAC and protected WMA are comparable. Their non-protected versions are a little less so since AAC is a more open standard than WMA, to my knowledge.
posted by mikeh at 2:08 PM on September 14, 2005

If you really want the song, you could burn the mp3 onto an audio cd, then rip it off again into a suitable format that itunes recognises.

It's not the answer, but it's a work-round.
posted by triv at 12:46 AM on September 15, 2005

And just to add, this is exactly why DRM is evil. I would never purchase music with DRM. I find it utterly baffling that there is nowhere you can download legal MP3 files from major labels, when those labels are quite happy to sell a shiny disk with unprotected versions of those same songs.
posted by salmacis at 5:31 AM on September 15, 2005