A friend just purchased a Sandisk Sansa MP3 player. She has some songs she purchased from iTunes which cant be played on the Sansa. Any recommendations how what program (Windows only) she can use to convert the AAC or mp4 files to MP3 ?

monkeyboy

this has been around for quite a while. extremely useful when I was in college! i think i remember that if you put a period in your shared library name, you can keep people from downloading your music.

nagrom

I used the old ourTunes, but I have absolutely no idea how this one works.

SeraSera

@Chris Rowe: It's a lot easier to browse the music so you can download only the songs that you want this way, especially if you are using it in a dorm situation.

ceilingFANBOY: timmaythesped (PSN)

This is painfully slow and not even worth using...

**currently testing it and not impressed**

metalhaze

So let me get this straight. This program allows you to copy files from a computer that's already on your network. Couldn't you just do this (using an XP machine as an example) through 'My Network Places' and 'My Computer'? You'd just drag the files straight onto your computer and then into iTunes.

Simplify Media lets your share songs over the Internet, not a network. If they added a downloading function that would be really cool, but would probably also get them shut down by Apple or the RIAA.

Chris Rowe

The old ourtunes (pre itunes 7) was much better. I used to download songs all day from the people in my dorm. I hope they can get past this whole play the song to download it thing cause that kinda sucks.

lladnar

@monkeyboy: The only way I can think of is to burn and rip the songs back to the computer. You might need to the preferences and under advanced click on the import tag and make sure it's set to encode as MP3.

mlhoward516

@nagrom: I remember using MyTunes at college. All of the dorms in the entire building were on the same network, so pretty much anything that you wanted you would be able to find.

ceilingFANBOY: timmaythesped (PSN)

@monkeyboy:

Burn the files that don't work (AACs from iTunes) to a cd and then reimport them into iTunes.

They will be imported into whatever format iTunes is set to import music to.

shamus-mccormick

@nagrom: Like I said, it's an old software, but when iTunes 7 came out, it was defunct for quite a while.

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

@Chris Rowe: It depends. Hardly anybody shares their entire hard disk, and most people don't share their iTunes folders by default. But even in this case, iTunes sharing still works, so the tool has its uses.

dlab

it used to work great with "Hamachi", which lets users on the internet share their itunes collection regardless of where they are.

schrosa

@Chris Rowe: As others have mentioned, this works best if people are on the same network as you but don't have windows file sharing (and all the annoyances of finding workgroups and the like) turned on. Cases: college... and ... college ... and ... college. If each dorm is its own subnet, just carry a laptop between dorms and siphon the entire MP3 repertoire of campus in a few easy clicks. For discovery purposes of course. If you like anything you hear, of course you head straight to the campus bookstore and buy the relevant CDs.

If you don't want people to "borrow" your music, don't turn on sharing in iTunes. You can still see (and "borrow") their music but they won't be able to see (or "borrow") yours. Back when iTunes first came out and I was in college, people would judge you by the music you chose to share (Britney = banished for life; if you didn't have "Smells like teen spirit", also banished.). So the trick is to make certain playlists of socially acceptable music and only share those.

CWW

Hey guys,
This program can be used quite efficiently at times :)
I wrote up a guide of the tips and tricks I worked out to better use this software ^^ I'm on a university network with about 20 iTunes Shared Libraries :P
Anyways here's the link:
[saveourtunes.com]

Bobly

@Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor: Actually Adam it's the second the song is stop, either paused or skipped, that the stream suddenly goes lightning fast. Using a simple Play, pause, next, play, etc... method you can get a whole album in less than 10 minutes.

I'll repeat that link again, it makes it easier to use ;)
[saveourtunes.com]

Bobly

@xxdesmus: I had the same issue on one of the computers I tried it on. But when I skipped to the next track rather than letting the song finish, it went to super-speed, so you might want to give that a try.

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

It works, but it is REALLY slow. Like the length of the song just to download it...regardless of what your network speed is. This is a way of time.

xxdesmus

"It downloads quickly, so you don't have to listen to the entire song before moving to the next. Generally songs just take a few seconds to land on your desktop."

Hmmm, that doesn't seem to be the case for me in Windows. The download is progressing at exactly the same rate that the song is playing.

cpv204

@CPV204 and pretty much everyone who thinks it's always slow: make sure to read the documentation on the SaveOurTunes website.

Normally, iTunes constrains a song's streamability with respect to the playback speed. Speed downloading (the feature Bobly described just above me, implemented in the newest ourTunes) forces a song to stream as fast as possible over the network. To activate it, just pause a tunnelled song.

- EricTJ

EricTheRed

We should stop and think about this.

I have issues with the assumption that music should be free (musisicans are like you, they like to get paid for what they do for a living) which will probably get me flamed mercilessly. But that's not even the real issue with this dangerous little app.

This allows you to steal from people who haven't given you permission to do so. BitTorrent and any host of other P2P clients are all permission based: you OPT-IN to a community of exchange. If you dig (and digg) that world, you're agreeing to allow your music to be downloaded.

This removes the opt-in piece, which to me is a huge violation of privacy. If I'm a nice guy sharing playlists/libraries on the office network, I've now opened myself up to you rifling my library. I just wanted to let you listen to my tunes, and you loot my files for that? That sucks.

Far as I can tell, nothing about this gives the host any notice that they've opened their vault up to thieves. They're clueless to you. And that's unfair.

Given the foolishly aggressive stance of the RIAA, it also opens unwitting people up to lawsuits. Your buddy down the hall, without knowing it, has just distributed music. In short, you screwed him. And hey... they don't discriminate. College kids, widows... they'll sue whomever. That sucks, too.

So even if you disagree with my stance that musicians deserve to feed their families too, consider how angry you'd be if someone created an app that allowed users to not only download your music, but your emails. Or something else on your computer you consider "yours."

This is a slippery slope.

chriswooster

In addition to any ethical/moral/privacy issues, no opt-in to sharing music can slow down the connection on your computer if enough connections are coming in that you are unaware of.
Then again, I would bet the next update of iTunes will fix this... if people are so intent on using these programs, why not just stop iTunes from updating, or distribute older versions? Stop the problem at the source, instead of applying increasingly difficult and expensive band-aids.

Eaglesearcher

@monkeyboy: I was under the impression that iTunes will do this for you - right-click on the song in your iTunes library and there should be a selection that says 'convert to mp3'.

I used ourTunes for a long time, until the iTunes update killed it. I guess it's working again?

clarient

@chriswooster: I'm sorry, I don't see the violation of privacy in downloading music that someone else has knowingly and willingly placed openly on a given network. No one is seeing anything that hasn't already been opened deliberately by the user. This would only constitute a violation of privacy if the user hosting the library had not intended to make the contents of his library public (which doesn't happen by default), and the user of OurTunes had forced that library out in the open without his permission. Or maybe if every track was appended with the host's social security number. Or if the host listens to really bad music.

The only difference between using iTunes as intended to browse through and listen to others' music, and using OurTunes to save that streamed music, is that the music is saved, rather than streamed and forgotten by the client machine. That's arguably questionable, and it's another converstaion entirely as to whether you can even call it stealing or thievery (bunk and horsefeathers, I say). However, OurTunes turns the host machine into a kind of distribution hub (of a one-spoke wheel, big whoop), which actually may be questionable. But since the host machine is only ever using his software within the guidelines of the software manufacturer, the manufacturer of the software (iTunes) would be called to task for those flaws.

The major purpose of hacking, and lifehacking, is using things in a way not intended by the manufacturer for an extended benefit. The more things are 'locked down' the more important this inclination becomes.

I see a hack here, perhaps one that can be used in an ethically questionable way, but that doesn't make the software itself bad or wrong, it just gives people the power to decide how to use data, which I see as good. Power to the people, man. If iTunes didn't lock out this feature in the first place, it would likely be a setting toggle that all users would have control over whether they want others to download their music.

And I certainly see no slippery slope, and I'm pretty darn tired of everything being called one these days.

doctorfrog

Does this program transcode? I'm downloading mp3's from somebody with a bitrate of less than 300, but all my output files are 320. It seems to me like I'm getting a compression of a compression.. that's really unfortunate.

taybay

@chriswooster: I'm a musician... Intellectual property is a touchy subject, but I think we both agree that my art is MY art, not the RIAA's. If I need my music to be known via modern channels, there's nothing better than these methods. So like many other of my musician friends say: PLEASE, STEAL MY MUSIC.

This is a fantastic find, great for this weekend before classes. I love this software, and thanks a lot for the explanation Adam.

gfunk

i downloaded this yesterday and spent ages getting loads of songs.. only to find it wouldnt play the whole song when i moved them into my itunes!

when they were downloading it would only need to play a minute or so of the song before it was complete and move onto the next one, and this minute is all i get of the song! how can i stop it happening? i downloaded the songs into the 'ourtunes' folder than appeared in my music folder then imported them all to the itunes library after. is it something to do with this?

jadeee_d

well.
It's not like the artists are making most of their money off of album sales anyways.
Most of em' make their money doing shows and touring, album sales make the record comps. money. Not the artists.

tHorO

@doctorfrog: While the user may be willingly making their music public, I am sure that they are unaware that there is an application out there that will allow anyone to download music from their computer. Most people are pretty computer illiterate, this type of application is beyond the scope of their understanding. They would consider it magic!

nabilalk

Re: Monkey boy

Monkey boy, DRM from iTunes purchased music really blows. The best way to remove it so that the purchased songs act like any other song is to make a playlist with the purchased songs, and then burn them to CD's. After they are burned, import them back into iTunes, and then delete the originals. And voila! No more DRM bs restrictions. I hope that helps.

nabilalk

My fiance and I shared our iTunes purchases. Unfortunately when he unceremoniously dumped me (and fired me ... but that's another story) he changed the password and user-ship on our "joint" account. Now all the music I have on my computer and iPod can't be played. Any suggestions???

lalita

This seems like a nice tool for college networks. I have no use for it in my house though. As for the "permission" to share songs, I don't remember Itunes default being to share songs on network. So by clicking to share songs you are in a way "accepting" that people will download the songs you share. The only difference is that Ourtunes will save a copy of the you play to your hard drive rather then just to memory.

Chevron36

I wonder why anyone wanted to boost the transmitting power of their WLAN? The only thing you achieve is that clients further away will see your station - BUT they will not be able to reach it!!! For this you would have to boost the client's transmit power as well.

So by doing this you will just become one of those hot spots that everyone sees but cannot connect to. Big advantage ;-)

kian01