Burning MP3 CDs

[SharonRB]

I just tried to burn my iTunes list to CD as MP3 files and got an error message that they couldn't be burned as MP3 files unless they were already MP3 files. How does one go about converting files from music CDs to make them MP3 files so they will play in the CD player?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[bgcat57]

Hi SharonRB,

This can be done but it's a pain. I hate iTunes but I have to use it for my iPhone. Anyway, here's what you do.
You'll need a cheap or freeware mp3 ripper program that you can download on the net and install it on your computer (regardless of whether you've got a PC or a Mac)
You need to create an audio (standard music CD as opposed to an MP3 disc) CD with the songs that you bought on iTunes. It can't excede 70 minutes worth of music (a limitation of the standard audio CD).
Once the CD is completed, open the CD tray but leave the CD in it - don't close it yet.
In iTunes, Choose Edit/Preferences/Advanced tab/Importing tab
Change 'Import using:' to MP3 Encoder.
You can change the setting to something higher if quality is really important to you - I listen to a lot of classical so it is to me. If you listen to mostly 'radio/popular' you can leave the default setting.
Close the dialog box/window.
Close CD tray now.
iTunes will ask if you want to import the songs. Say yes.
(If you made the CD as an exact copy of an existing CD with all the same songs in the same order as the original album, iTunes may recognize it and name it properly. If not, you'll have to rename every song so that you'll recognize it.)
iTunes will now import all the songs on the audio CD as mp3 files.

Repeat this process untill you've got all the songs you want to put on an mp3 CD. If you chose 'high quality (320Mhz)' on the settings, you can get about 4 audio CD's worth of music on one mp3 CD. If you chose a lower quality, you can get more than that. The lower the quality, the more songs you can get on one CD.

Then you will need to burn the mp3's onto a CD with an application other than iTunes (like Roxio.)

I hope this helps.

P.S. The audio CD will play fine in the car, it just hold's at best, only a quarter of the music that an mp3 CD can hold.

[SharonRB]

Sounds like more trouble than it's worth. I guess I'll just use my iPod and my regular CDs.

I just thought I'd get a bunch of my CDs transferred to MP3 so I wouldn't need so many of them.

Thanks for the info!

[frostyford]

I'm about half done with my conversion (900+ CD's). One thing to note, there is some loss during a conversion from one format to another.

I made the mistake of loading mine as WMA's a few years ago. This will be my third load of these CD's.
1. WMA - with License management on, that was a problem when I moved my files.
2. WMA - no license
3. MP3 - Much nicer.

I use Windows media player. I hate it; but I hate Itunes even more.

Crank up your bit rate if you like the quality sound preserved.

Scott (frostyford)

[dbwill]

I put what I wanted on cd using Nero 8 and setting the quality to CdD quality and get about 13 albums on 1 MP3 cd. Nero makes it very simple

[bgcat57]

I should clarify that I was referring to converting songs that you purchased through iTunes. If the songs are from CD's you already own, it's far more simple.
Just (in iTunes,) Choose Edit/Preferences/Advanced tab/Importing tab
Change 'Import using:' to MP3 Encoder.
Re-import the CD's that you want to compile. Then you'll be good to go with creating an mp3 CD.

[timhood]

bgcat57 answered the question with one correction needed. It's not necessary to download and install any additional software. Any song iTunes recognizes can be burned onto an audio CD. Any audio CD can be imported into iTunes into MP3 format. The typical method is therefore to make an audio CD of the protected AAC songs and then import the audio CD as MP3 songs. If wasting a CD-R bothers you (despite how inexpensive they are), you can use a CD-RW for this process.

Keep in mind that only protected AAC songs (purchased from the ITMS) need to be converted to an audio CD first. Any unprotected AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless or WAV song files can be directly converted to MP3s and then burned on your disc.

Protected AAC files may not be perfect, but I'll take iTunes over Windows Media Player any day.

[curtis]

I hate iTunes. Just rip the damn CD's to MP3, If you have them on disc already you dont need itunes

[curtis]

better yet, download limewire download all the songs you like for free,disregard the crappy tracks.. they will already be mp3's and burn 'em...And actually if you already own the CD that the song's on it's not stealing...this way you can make compilations much easier and faster.