MP3 Confusion?

I've been down loading music from Wal-mart.com to my computer for a while now. I stopped about six months ago because I found out that I couldn't burn some of the music to disc to play in my car. That was my first experience with "rights protected" Don't even get me started! I felt like I had been jiped because I HAD paid for the music. I got my daughter and I cheep little MP3 players and the music I bought seemed to transfer to that ok. NOW I got my hubby a MP3 and nothing I have on the computer will transfer, I guess because I bought the wrong "format????" I went to the Wal-mart sight and now I see that they seem to have everything seperated into what will go onto an MP3 or whatever. It WAS NOT like that when I bought all the crap that seems to be totally useless to me now. Can anyone tell me what the h-e-** all this mess means and where I can got get my husband some music for his new gadget. Do I really have to pay for all this s-h-*%26amp; again??????

MP3 Confusion?
Yes, DRM is a pain. Its amazing that the labels have taken this long to realize that it is a pain for the consumer to understand and they only have ended up hurting themselves.





There are really only two major DRM formats you should have to worry about (make that three I'll explain later).





One is apple's FairPlay DRM (ironic naming aside). That is the DRM found on iTunes tracks used on the ever popular iPod. If its an iPod you get the music from iTunes and if you get the music from iTunes you put it on an iPod. That one is pretty cut and dry (there is an exception but again, I'll get to that in a bit.





The other main DRM is Microsoft's PlaysForSure (I think they name these things out of spite). This is the one that almost any player that isn't an iPod is going to use. Creative, sansa, and many others fall into this category. You'll see the plays for sure logo on the box of any player that uses this DRM. Its a blue sideways triangle with the words plays for sure and a windows logo (see link below). This one gets a bit confusing just because of all the players that run it and all of the services offering music for it. For the most part they are all suposed to work together. In practice that isn't always true. Also keep and eye out for subscription services like yahoo where you'll need a subscription compatable plays for sure player to get the subscription to work.





There another one on the market now. The microsoft zune uses its own proprietary DRM. If its a zune it only works with zune, not iTunes, not plays for sure.





The good news is that none of that really matters anymore because Amazon just added the final hold out (sony) to their list of DRM free MP3. Any Mp3 you buy from Amazon will work on any player. Period.
Reply:Yep - DRM is a pain in the butt - I wont let it install on any of my machines. I have purchased music by the song from Amazon - its already in mp3 format - and it works fine on my Sanza /Rhapsody - but:.





With Sanza Rhaposody, they want you to load their Rahpsody program into your pc and use that to load the Sanza. DONT DO IT! Rhapsody will load DRM software onto your machine (without telling you) and then the problems begin. Instead, use Windows Media Player to load mp3 files onto your player and it should be happiness without DRM messing things up.
Reply:I think the easiest way is to use a third software to help you!


Here I found Daniusoft WMA MP3 Converter could convert many DRM video and audio: AAC, WAV, M4A, APE, AC3,MP3 and WMA in a high quality with fast conversion speed.


You can see detail and free download it here:


http://www.daniusoft.com/wma-mp3-convert...


If you still have question, you can e-mail me or use yahoo to search for more answers http://answers.yahoo.com
Reply:i feel your pain. since i stopped using limewire becuase it gave my mom's computer terrible viruses, i now use iTunes to download music. but, of course it is rights protected.





so i found the easiest way to bypass this retarded format.





JUST BURN THE COPY PROTECTED FILES TO A CD THEN RIP THEM AGAIN IN WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER OR WHATEVER!!


THE RIGHTS WILL BE DELETED.





this trick works for me. of course, when you rip them in windows media player they will be in the .WMA format.





If you have the Windows XP operating system, you should have a little application called "Audio Converter". It can be found, I believe in...START-ALL PROGRAMS-ACCESSORIES-ENTERTAINMENT.





If it is not here, you either don't have the right operating system, or it is not in the entertainment folder. But it should be in accessories.





So, becuase most MP3 players only play the MP3 format, you are going to have to convert the .WMA to .MP3 using the Audio Converters.





Note:There are millions of programs that will do this process as well, both free or very cheap.





Once you have your new MP3's, just drag them into the MP3 player's folder in "My Computer".





Hopefully you understood my instructions, good luck!!