iTunes to mp3?

What do you all use to convert itunes music to mp3 format? Is there an automator action that can do that? Or what third part software do you use?

My daughter just got an mp3 player, and I want to easily get music onto it as it doesn't support the m4a files in our existing iTunes library.

Thanks.

 

It's pretty simple in iTunes.

Crank up Preferences, wait for the beachball to go away likely the first time you do this after launch under Snow Leopard (even on a Nehalem), from the General tab click Import Settings. Set the encoder to MP3 and the bitrate you want and confirm the changes.

Go into your iTunes library and select the files you want to convert, right click and select Create MP3 version. That's it.

It can suffer from some script oddities (in which case as I discovered, remove the scripts and reinstall), but iTuneMyWalkman is a good (and in fact, almost the only worthwhile - as is usual for OS X) solution for dealing with Mass Storage players in iTunes. You create a playlist folder called iTuneMyWalkman, and the script will sync any playlist(s) under it. Set Smart Playlists to limit "Kind" to Contain "MPEG audio" and you'll avoid picking any AAC files to sync. iTMW can also be made to limit the types of media it'll sync so that it'll ignore any AAC files during sync - take out m4a in the Encoding preferences, leave mp3 in and put in -1 as the bitrate.

 

Ah - that helped.

Of course, this is a rather cumbersome solution. Any third-party suggestions would be helpful.

 

Cumbersome? That's about as easy as it gets.

 

Oh, certainly its rather simple--and thanks for explaining it! Its just several steps each time for only a few songs--then resetting the original import settings.

Too bad there wasn't a good automator action to achieve the same results in a one click solution. That's why I'm still searching for some third-party option--something more one click.

 

select like all 50 songs you want to switch and then right click and create mp3.. and have them all done in the same action...

can get a little confusing keeping track of everything though

 

Dude.

Create a playlist or Smart Playlist with your criteria, Hit Command-A and right click. You're done.

Seriously.

 

Err, you're not gonna find an easier solution than itunes.

If I were you I would change the itunes preferences to rip as mp3's, so that you don't have to worry about compatibility issues when you're trying to transfer music.

 

Good point. I'm sure he's talking about purchased tracks though.

Either that, or he's one of those people who think the A in AAC stands for Apple and therefore it's better than anything else

 

Its not quite that simple. First I have change the import settings to mp3. Then when I'm done, I have to root out the duplicates that are made. Then I have change my import settings back again.

I know - its doable. I'm just wondering if anyone has found something less cumbersome.

 

2 questions

1. Why do you have to set them back?
2. You can of course sort by Date Imported once you've made your MP3 versions. Is there some sort of complication?

 

I downloaded Switch and it looks to do exactly what I'm wanting.

Thanks for all the help.

 

Here is a more simple way to convert itunes to mp3 and it works