Now Open: The New iTunes Store for NZ

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99 posts

Master Geek

#54840 6-Dec-2006 19:31

I don't think it will be a nice earner for Mr. Jobs... its likely that the record labels are taking the most, as is the model in the USA.

I've just enabled my apple id for iTunes, I've got to say that iTunes is great with the Music store enabled... Artwork for my existing tracks got downloaded automatically, and the enablement of the podcast section is great.

No free music on the store though (USA has free singles every week).

The NZ material available from the front page of iTunes is a bit weak though? And some strange things - Minuit for instance, where their first album 'The 88' is avaialble on iTunes, biut not their most recent one which has been out for over 6 months?

Pretty cool though.

VanAlstine

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Geek

#54860 6-Dec-2006 22:20

Can anyone help me. I've been to the NZ Itunes page on the net. I search for a song and it opens Itunes on my pc. The search results are there but I'm in the Itunes Japanese store! I try to open an account and I get a lot of gibberish because my computer can't display the Japanese characters. This is so weird. My computer has not been to Japan. I can't select the store in Itunes. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

cokemaster

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#54861 6-Dec-2006 22:22

Have you tried changing the music store country by changing the country at the bottom of the page?

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VanAlstine

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Geek

#54870 6-Dec-2006 23:19

Found it! Thanks.

Aloha

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#54873 6-Dec-2006 23:35

Finally they are here. And it works!

Renaissance made a pretty good profit during the years they managed Apple products in NZ. Now the prices are much better, it's time to buy Apple again.. :)

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lowededwookie

51 posts

Master Geek

#54890 7-Dec-2006 08:55

The first time I ran the store I got told it wasn't available but then I got a screen showing a heap of flags. I just clicked on the New Zealand one and bingo bango bongo.

grant_k

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#54896 7-Dec-2006 10:09

So, please tell me all you iTunes users, how could I use iTunes to import tracks into my existing MP3 library and be able to play them using WMP?

iPODs don't interest me as both my cars have MP3/WMA capable CD players and I don't want to buy yet another gadget just to play music when the gadgets I already have allow me to do that quite adequately.

I always use WMP to play music on my PC now, it's come a long way since the early versions and all the special keys on my MS keyboard (Play/Pause, Stop, Prev/Next Track etc) just work, unlike Winamp where you need some special driver installed.

I really don't want to have some of my library playable only from iTunes and the rest in WMP.

Undoubtedly iTunes has by far the best selection of tracks compared to Coke Tunes and Digirama which I use alternately depending on who has got the artist I'm looking for.

So, is there a way I can use iTunes to do this?

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portege

188 posts

Master Geek

#54897 7-Dec-2006 10:12

Burn it on a cd, then rip it back - you will have to name the track manually

cokemaster

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#54898 7-Dec-2006 10:19

All the MP3's imported into Itunes generally stay as MP3 files.

Depending on your settings they should either be left as is, or be placed within your Itunes user folder (sorted of course). You should be able to mass import using WMP from that folder.

To 'import' Itunes music store songs onto other players (such as WMP or your car player), just burn the playlist containing the song to a disk and rerip it as MP3.

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grant_k

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#54900 7-Dec-2006 10:22

cokemaster: All the MP3's imported into Itunes generally stay as MP3 files.

Are you saying that tracks purchased from the iTunes music store get downloaded as MP3s?

grant_k

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#54902 7-Dec-2006 10:24

portege: Burn it on a cd, then rip it back - you will have to name the track manually

That's a shame...

When I do this with WMP, it somehow stores the names of the Track and Artist on the Audio CD so when ripping it back, you don't have to manually name each track. I burnt and ripped 2 CDs worth of tracks last night, and this ability sure saved a lot of time.

cokemaster

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#54903 7-Dec-2006 10:25

No. Songs purchased from ITMS are stored as DRM'ed AAC files.

Songs that you've imported from other sources (ie. your own collection) will remain the same format unless they're WMA files.

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tonyhughes

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#54904 7-Dec-2006 10:28

Grant17: So, please tell me all you iTunes users, how could I use iTunes to import tracks into my existing MP3 library and be able to play them using WMP?

iPODs don't interest me as both my cars have MP3/WMA capable CD players and I don't want to buy yet another gadget just to play music when the gadgets I already have allow me to do that quite adequately.

I always use WMP to play music on my PC now, it's come a long way since the early versions and all the special keys on my MS keyboard (Play/Pause, Stop, Prev/Next Track etc) just work, unlike Winamp where you need some special driver installed.

I really don't want to have some of my library playable only from iTunes and the rest in WMP.

Undoubtedly iTunes has by far the best selection of tracks compared to Coke Tunes and Digirama which I use alternately depending on who has got the artist I'm looking for.

So, is there a way I can use iTunes to do this?

Use Apple or Microsofts own software, using their own instructions to defeat their own DRM using processes THEY reccomend for importing, burning and ripping music.

Buy your music from an approved store (iTunes, Coketunes, Digirama, whatever), use iTunes or WMP (depending on where you bought the music of course) to burn the tracks to CD (they specifically allow this), then leave the burnt CD in the drive, open up the competing application, and click 'import'. Depending on your settings, they will now be DRM free AAC, MP3 or WMA.

You lose some audio quality, and unless its an entire, complete single album, you will lose the ID3 tags and have to type them manually.

Works.

Suitable for many people, unsuitable for others (for various reasons: time, effort, quality, morals).

grant_k

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#54907 7-Dec-2006 10:42

Thanks for that Tony.

tonyhughes: Use Apple or Microsofts own software, using their own instructions to defeat their own DRM using processes THEY reccomend for importing, burning and ripping music.

Yes, isn't this farcical... A complete waste of time necessitated by the policy of the music companies. I don't know what they think they are achieving by forcing users to process their music by this circuitous route.

tonyhughes: You lose some audio quality, and unless its an entire, complete single album, you will lose the ID3 tags and have to type them manually.

In theory you should lose some audio quality, but I repeatedly played the original WMA 128kbps track (with DRM) versus the re-ripped 192kbps MP3 track and couldn't hear any difference at all.

tonyhughes: Suitable for many people, unsuitable for others (for various reasons: time, effort, quality, morals).

Agreed. The "morals" situation will be sorted out by upcoming legislation going through parliament as alluded to in another GZ thread this morning.

What I'm doing here is simply format-shifting, so long as I don't pass the unprotected MP3 files on to any other person. Technically, this has been illegal in NZ since the days when we used to tape our vinyl albums onto cassettes for use in a car. And technically, right at this moment, it is still illegal but it seems quite moral to me to play music that I have paid for on the device of my choosing, be it my desktop PC, laptop PC or car. It's not like the original artist is getting ripped off, because I can only listen to one of those devices at any given time...

lchiu7

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#54911 7-Dec-2006 11:06

I have purchased a couple of songs from iTunes (US) but didn't really buy more since the selection didn't interest me. But at the time with iTunes 6(?) I was able to remove the DRM from the track without burning and re-ripping and move the song(s) to another device. But that avenue has been closed now. Not that it was stricly unethical really since it involved an application that actually took your iTunes credentials, logged onto iTunes via some API and did its stuff.

But I would have to agree - before I discovered this backdoor I did burn and rerip and the music quality was hardly noticeably different - especially given on what devices they are being played on.

I also have bought lots of songs from Sony's Connect Music store, mainly because I purchased the Sony HD audio player and it came with 50 free downloads and in browsing their store found other stuff that I (well my daughter actually) liked. I haven't checked in the past few months but Sony's music in their ATRAC format also has DRM of course but there is software around to remove the DRM easily so the music can be listend to in another player apart from the NW-HD3. BTW I think this is discontinued and I saw it cheap at DSE recently

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