Jumping the fence
June 20, 2007 5:26 PM Subscribe
Suppose I have 250 songs purchased on Itunes for Windows. If I buy a new Mac, will those 250 files be useable on the Mac?
Yeah, you can play your files on up to 5 computers, and you can always clear out all five authorized computers and start over.
Just transfer the files to the mac, import them in iTunes, login to the apple store, and you should be up and running.
posted by mathowie at 5:44 PM on June 20, 2007
Just transfer the files to the mac, import them in iTunes, login to the apple store, and you should be up and running.
posted by mathowie at 5:44 PM on June 20, 2007
only problem i had was moving my itunes items from windows to mac, you have to reformat your ipod in order to do so. i haven't tried just moving the files and trying to transfer them with itunes.
posted by smart_ask at 6:22 PM on June 20, 2007
posted by smart_ask at 6:22 PM on June 20, 2007
I just switched last week, and every worked fine, including iTunes purchased songs.
You can deauthorize iTunes on your PC after you're done moving all the files, if you don't ever want to use iTunes on there anymore, so you're not needlessly using up one of the five allowed computers that you can play your iTunes purchases on.
Also, if your iPod has disk use enabled, you don't even need to reformat it for the Mac. But if you don't have that, then you need to reformat it at some point (either to disk use before the switch so you can use it to transfer files if you want, or to Mac after you've switched.)
Personally, I found this iTunes-related thread very useful for my switch, but it's not answering your question. Just something you might also find useful.
posted by easternblot at 6:53 PM on June 20, 2007
You can deauthorize iTunes on your PC after you're done moving all the files, if you don't ever want to use iTunes on there anymore, so you're not needlessly using up one of the five allowed computers that you can play your iTunes purchases on.
Also, if your iPod has disk use enabled, you don't even need to reformat it for the Mac. But if you don't have that, then you need to reformat it at some point (either to disk use before the switch so you can use it to transfer files if you want, or to Mac after you've switched.)
Personally, I found this iTunes-related thread very useful for my switch, but it's not answering your question. Just something you might also find useful.
posted by easternblot at 6:53 PM on June 20, 2007
burn the itunes files to music cds. Rip back to mp3.
You now have DRM-free music files and no longer have to jump through absurd hoops just to play the music you paid for.
I'm not anti-Mac and not trying to stir up shit, but I can't believe anyone anywhere would pay for music and then accept the seller telling them where and how they can play it.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:05 PM on June 20, 2007 [1 favorite]
You now have DRM-free music files and no longer have to jump through absurd hoops just to play the music you paid for.
I'm not anti-Mac and not trying to stir up shit, but I can't believe anyone anywhere would pay for music and then accept the seller telling them where and how they can play it.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:05 PM on June 20, 2007 [1 favorite]
burn the itunes files to music cds. Rip back to mp3.
This works and is a fairly easy way of getting around any sort of iTunes DRM. That being said, I'm pretty sure it'll further compress the file and you will lose a bit of quality. Probably not noticeable to most people's ears, though.
posted by dhammond at 8:10 PM on June 20, 2007
This works and is a fairly easy way of getting around any sort of iTunes DRM. That being said, I'm pretty sure it'll further compress the file and you will lose a bit of quality. Probably not noticeable to most people's ears, though.
posted by dhammond at 8:10 PM on June 20, 2007
Probably not noticeable to most people's ears, though.
I've done this a few times, and it's actually a pretty serious song-volume loss. There are utilities out there that will crack iTunes' DRM and maintain the quality of your files; if I were inclined to do such a thing (attention government internet tube-series monitors: I am not), I'd look for something called myfairtunes and start there.
posted by pdb at 8:54 PM on June 20, 2007 [1 favorite]
I've done this a few times, and it's actually a pretty serious song-volume loss. There are utilities out there that will crack iTunes' DRM and maintain the quality of your files; if I were inclined to do such a thing (attention government internet tube-series monitors: I am not), I'd look for something called myfairtunes and start there.
posted by pdb at 8:54 PM on June 20, 2007 [1 favorite]
> burn the itunes files to music cds. Rip back to mp3.
You now have DRM-free music files and no longer have to jump through absurd hoops just to play the music you paid for.
This would work pretty well for a smallish collection. Otherwise copying them all in one fell swoop by external hard drive / ipod / over the network and (optionally) selecting "Deauthorize Computer" on the old box is going to be worlds easier.
(FWIW, Apple agrees with you.)
posted by churl at 10:21 PM on June 20, 2007
You now have DRM-free music files and no longer have to jump through absurd hoops just to play the music you paid for.
This would work pretty well for a smallish collection. Otherwise copying them all in one fell swoop by external hard drive / ipod / over the network and (optionally) selecting "Deauthorize Computer" on the old box is going to be worlds easier.
(FWIW, Apple agrees with you.)
posted by churl at 10:21 PM on June 20, 2007
If you authorize your new computer with your iTunes account, and then sync your iPod with the new computer, iTunes on the new computer may tell you that it found purchased music on the iPod that is not on the new computer and give you the opportunity to transfer the purchased music to the new computer. At least that happened to me when syncing an iPod on two Macs within the last week (both running the latest version of iTunes, and the newer computer having a copy of the older powerbook's iTunes library file.)
posted by andrewraff at 8:30 AM on June 21, 2007
posted by andrewraff at 8:30 AM on June 21, 2007
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posted by xil at 5:34 PM on June 20, 2007