What is an MPEG audio file and how is it different from an MP3?

I was able to convert songs to MPEG format. What is that?

 

Hey SNS,
If you have imported back to itunes and you now see a duplicate file that says MPEG, you got it! Now burn those to to mp3.

 

iTunes SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone who helped and especially 09SG for several PM suggestions. This morning I achieved success in converting these iTunes to MP3 without having to use another software program. Here's what worked:

Take the iTunes library songs (purchased or downloaded) and burn the music to AUDIO CDs

Make sure your settings for importing (at the top of screen: EDIT, then PREFENCES, then IMPORT SETTINGS) are set to MP3

Reinsert the burned Audio CD and import the songs back into iTunes, but do not over-write the original songs that are in iTunes.

This brings the songs back to your library as MPEG format.

Create a new playlist and select all the MPEG formatted songs you want to burn and drop them into that new playlist.

Hit BURN and make sure that MP3 is selected.

THIS WORKS!! I burned a sampling of songs just to try it and the disk properties appears almost empty with 6 songs on it and it played in my HD Harmon Khardon!

No extra software required!

 

Congrats!! NSN

Enjoy and ride safe.

 

So every time you want to do this you have to burn your purchased tracks to CD, then rip the CD back into your library again, there-by wasting a disc (unless you use a rewritable) and resulting in song/media duplication (IE, wasted disk space)?

Glad you got it working, but I think spending a few minutes learning how to use TuneBite would have been a better solution.

Here's how I do it in a nutshell:

1) Download from Napster (I have a "To-Go" subscription).
2) Convert to MP3 with TuneBite (which also strips the DRM in the process)
3) Update ID3 tag info/album art with MP3Tag
4) Import the MP3's into iTunes
5) Delete the songs from my Napster library since I now have a DRM-free version in my iTunes library.

These DRM-less MP3's can be burned as many times as you want, and in any method/manner you want (audio CD, or MP3/data cd).

No wasted CD's, and takes way less time since I don't have to burn them to disc just to rip them again.

Just an opinion. Value it what you paid for it.

 

Yea but that all requires "Napster" and "TuneBite"?
That requires more software, more learning and likely more costs too, right?

Blank CDs are relatively cheap and what are we talking about, maybe using 3-4 blank CDs to burn with Audio Tracks to then convert to ONE MP3 CD? I can affort 3-5 blank CDs to accomplish that. And as for room? If you need the room you can easily delete the older protected files from your computer, right?

If I was looking at dozens of CDs and literally hundreds of files, then maybe your way makes more sense. But my goal was to condense 3-5 CDs down to ONE CD that I can now keep in my CD Player on the bike. Thanks though for your suggestion as it may be appropriate for others here..

 

Gladly. If you ever decide to take the plunge and fill out your media library a bit, gimme a hollar. I'll walk you through getting it setup and running.

My library has grown exponentially since I discovered TuneBite. It rocks (pun intended).

 

There's another overlooked aspect of how I accomplished the conversion that some here may or may not be concerned about.

It all was done using iTunes and no other software was utilized. How could iTunes complain if I didnt use any other software? They can't... Seems perfectly OK in my eyes...

 

I understand that 'unspoken' concern.

Here's how I justify what I do.

I pay Napster $15/mo for my To-Go subscription. Back when I was using a Samsung BlackJack phone I would add songs directly from Napster. However, I can't tell you how many times I would select a song to listen to on the phone only for an error to pop up and tell me I had to reconnect to Napster to update the license before my phone would play the song again. If I was at home it wasn't an issue, but when I wasn't near my PC it was annoying as hell. Usually because when ONE would expire it meant the entire library had expired, which meant NO MUSIC! /gasp!

Now that I'm using an iPhone (that isn't compatible with Napster, and only compatible with iTunes), I'm simply ensuring I can listen to the songs that I pay a monthly subscription to listen to on my new device, and without the hassle of having to reconnect to Napster at the most inconvenient times to renew my DRM licensing. As long as I'm paying my monthly subscription I have no problems removing the DRM so I CAN keep listening to the music I'm paying for the right to listen to.

If I ever cancel my Napster account I'll delete the tracks I downloaded from them. I promise!

Though for the value and convenience I'm pretty sure Napster will be a part of our regular monthly household expenses for quite a while. I suppose I could do the $.99 per track method (iTunes, Amazon, Walmart, etc), but my $15/mo gets me SOOOOO much more that it just doesn't make financial sense to go that route.

I've downloaded 30+ full albums since the beginning of November (MAN I miss the 80's / early 90's! =) and listen to almost every song (random shuffle). How much would that have cost me doing it the $.99 way? "Too much" is the answer. All of the artists whose music I'm listening to are getting a percentage of my monthly subscription. I'm paying them every month for the right to listen to their songs. Sounds odd, doesn't it? So again...as long as I'm paying for my Napster account I can easily justify removing the DRM.

Yes, I know I'm rationalizing. But it works "for me". YMMV

 

Cant agree with you more, Im waiting on tunebite to convert a few albums now... My 500gb external hard drive is almost full of primarily music