richs2891

Calling angrynorth - as while I dont agree with all your views on Mac's / iPods have to admit iPods are popular / well marketed, and you do have some sensible answer and how to work the silly things.

How do you copy music from one ipod to another (via iTunes), I'm getting the ipod registered to another itune, replace all music etc message when trying to access another ipod.

Trying to get the ephpod application to work which I told can do this as well

Richard

Markus

Richard,
Using iTunes it is not possible to copy music from the iPod to the computer. You'll need to use a third party product to allow you to copy the music from it, something like Podworks (if you're on a mac that is).

The reason why you cannot do it? Well it's Apple's attempt to stop you ripping off music, as, for example, you could plug in your friends iPod, loaded with songs, pull them all off, then plug in your iPod and copy all that lovely free music onto your iPod, then repeat the above with all your friends who have iPods.

ScoobyDoo555

I've got a load of Ipod apps (for mac & PC) - you need IPodExplorer (IIRC).

Also check out Ipod Lounge (and IPod Hacks).......

There's loads of freeware. If you want, I'll try and find the CD.

Dan

richs2891

Cheers for that, only confirms my feelings for iPods and Apple in general.

Thinking about it I suppose they offocially had to be seen to be doing something about distributing down loaded music !

Got the ephpod application to work, seems to work well on a pc

Richard

Markus

It's not just Apple to blame, it's the music industry who probably had some say in things. I certainly know that is why music on iTMS is in ACC Protected format, the music companies simply would not allow the music to be downloaded otherwise as little billy would download the song once, get a free sweetie or two from his pals for giving them a copy of the unprotected track(s)

I'm sure that if Microsoft had released an iPod type device then it'd be DRM'd up to the hilt and quite possibly even more restrivtive than the iPod.

Iain Young

Surely this should only affect drm protected files though? I can't see any reason why this should affect non-protected files (i.e stuff you've encoded from your own cd collection). I've not bought any music from the iTunes store myself (not seen the point), but doesn't this tie the downloaded file to the player, and so if you tried to copy it to a new machine it wouldn't play anyway? Seems pointless to try and stop it by excluding a useful feature from iTunes.

iTunes is quite nice, but it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

I know on my creative zen I can easily transfer wma files to and from it with the click of a button, (just fire up windows explorer and copy the files). It's possible to do on my ipod, as well but it's more fiddly.

Iain Young

On the other hand, it might not be as restrictive. Seeing as Microsoft has no intention of releasing such a device, we'll never know. There are a multitude of players out here which allow easy file copying. The iPod is by far the most restrictive one I've used so far.

ScoobyDoo555

I don't quite follow you on this comment.

I'm aware that you're not exactly Apple's biggest fan, and I respect your opinion (as I would expect you to respect my pro-Apple stance).
However, this seems to be getting into the relms of the ethics of copying music....

If so, Apple have got it bang on (as they are the platform of choice for music creation/production - professional, not the p1ss-pot bedroom production stuff! )

The fact that there are packages to circumvent Apple's attempts to adhere to the copyright LAW, has nothing to do with Apple, nor any of the otehr MP3 player manufacturers.......

As a professional musician/songwriter & producer, a proportion of my annual income is generated from royalties. Whilst I'm no angel, I do pay for a significant amount (99.9%) of the music I possess.

What does this mean to me? Loss of income. I'll have to earn even more then


However, before I go off on a deep and meaningful tirade, perhaps I've misread the previous posts - spell it out for me!!!


Dan

Iain Young

That's the whole point of DRM. If you download a file from iTunes, it has the rights management built into the aac file itself,. Thus, it doesn't matter if you copy it to another machine, because it won't play.

I fail to see how stopping people copying non-drm protected material (i.e. encoded from a cd thet they own rather than an aac bought through iTunes) off of their ipods helps the music industry at all. You wouldn't have been getting royalties from that anyway, except for the original cd purchase of course.

Just seems to be an annoyance for people who have genuine (legal) uses for copying the files around, and will have little or no impact on pirates.

ScoobyDoo555

Sad thing is Ian, that many people who have MP3 players, get their music collection from illegal activities.
When you purchase a CD, you aren't purchasing the right to copy the recording. You purchase the right to own and play one physical version.

IMO, this was one of the reasons why Apple launched ITunes - to compliment the Ipod for that very reason. They couldn't launch a product that was designed to play music without the owner purchasing a copy of the music to play on it.

I'm saying it's right, but that's the way it is. This is all about breaching copyright.

Besides, this is ethics. Anybody with half a brain cell can download copyright stripping software. The chances of you actually getting caught are pretty slim.

Hypothetically, if you're pulled by the Feds, they could check your Ipod and ask to see your documentation for proof of ownership. I doubt it though!! They could ask why you've been illegally transmitting through the I-Trip....... again, I doubt it though.

Just get the software to sort it.

Dan

Scooby-Doo

Enable show hidden files and folders on Windows then explore the IPOD when plugged in and you can see all the music. Just copy and paste to your hard drive.

richs2891

ScoobyDoo, My comment was more aimed at how Apple via iTunes have made it hard to transfer your own copy of music from one ipod to another, (such as backing the thing up or when you get a new one and wish to copy the music to the new one etc). As per Iain's comments
. I'm also not overly impressed with the sound quality, battery life of your average ipod either, as I've stated before in another thread, but lets not get into this again. Hopefully this will explain my comments / feelings for Ipod and Apple
Richard

ScoobyDoo555

I do actually agree with the battery, so I can see the Apple haven't got it quite right (name any manufacturer that has!!!) - it's down to personal preference

The comment about transferring from one Ipod to another ties in with Apple's compliance with law. Again, there's software to get around this (like the volume-fix etc)

Dan

Simon C

There is also a very easy option of enabling disk use for the ipod and do a search of it for all the MP3's on it then copy them and dump them to another folder. Its what I did when I rebuilt the new pc to save me having to re-encode all my albums.

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

i will suggest one thing

IPODLOUNGE

Markus

As others have stated, you can quite easilly browse the iPod and find the music, however, with the advent of iTunes 4.9, when an audio file is copied to the ipod it does not retain the same name as it would in your Music folder on the hard drive, it's some random name. Thus even when you find the directories sotring the music (very easy indeed) finding the song you wish to copy isn't as easy as it was.

If you have files on the iPod already they're ok, it doesn't, as far as I'm aware, go through and change the names of existing files, only new ones it copies on there.

If whatever you're using to browse the software can decode the name, which I doubt, as I don't think it's encoded as such, more random, then you're left at looking at the ID3 tags of the file to work out what it's called, and I don't think Windows Explorer reads that info, but correct me if I'm wrong there.
It's for this reason I use Podworks, as it has no issues at all with the new 'odd' names of files, I assume it reads the song info from somewhere else.

I copy from the iPod simply to keep a backup of it, as there could well be songs on there that are not in my main library (I'm in the process of syncing a couple of machines and my iPod to make sure I have one, completely synch and duplicate free music library)

angrynorth

Well, the theory is, if you own the music legally then you would have had to put it on your iPod yourself from your computer where all the music you had ripped or purchased would be stored.

Now, Apple's DRM is called Fairplay and it is the most flexible of formats. You can add Fairplay files on up to 5 machines and an unlimited number of iPods. Whereas if for instance you were using MS "Plays for Sure" format you would find a maximum of 5 total devices including MP3 players.

The bottom line is, if it genuinely is *your music* all fairly purchased and ripped, then you have much more freedom than you think. But if you are just trying to steal or *borrow* a load of music from your mates iPod and transfer it to your own then you will have to jump through a few hoops to do that thanks to the restrictions that the record companies insist on.

Now, you tell me Apple isn't doing all they can to allow both the consumer as much freedom as possible and at the same time satisfy the record companies.