Downloading music legally?

[Russkafin]

So, I just got iTunes and downloaded some songs at 99 cents a pop, with the intent of buring them to a CD, only to find out they are in an M4P format, which doesn't play on any program that I have other than iTunes itself. I don't have an iPod or mp3 player or anything like that, I just wanted to put the songs on a CD, which I figured would be allowable since I paid for them. It doesn't seem to work out that way.

Is there any site or program that has a similar, pay-per-song setup as iTunes that actually, oh, I don't know, lets you do what you want with the song after you buy it? I'd prefer to pay on a song-by-song basis rather than a pay-per-month type thing, because I don't think I'd use it all the time, just occasionally. Any reccomendations from the crowd?

[Mog]

All the other big services I know of want a monthly subscription as well as a per song payment, and most use WMA. eMusic is the only exception because they use MP3.

Not sure what I can tell you. Maybe if you look around you can find an AAC converter and turn them into MP3's, but I have no clue myself.

[Mynd Hed]

So far none of the big legal music download services are quite as good as just popping down to the local record store, buying your music on one of those archaic shiny spinny-things that I understand our ancestors called "compact discs," and ripping it from there. 99 cents per song is pretty reasonable, but all of the a la carte stores like iTunes and its imitators load their files up with DRM "features" that limit what you can do with your music. Most of the subscription services like Napster also have this nasty little clause in which your music expires a month or two after you cancel your subscription, so if you want to keep listening, you've got to keep paying.
Even when the restrictions in question aren't all that unreasonable, I tend to oppose this sort of thing on general principle. Also there's usually a clause somewhere in the fine print that they can change their conditions at will without any recourse by the customer, which makes my libertarian gut twist.

eMusic (http://www.emusic.com/) is the exception; it sells good old-fashioned standard-file-format non-DRMed mp3s that you can copy, burn, rip, etc. to your heart's content and which never expire. The catch is that there's no a la carte option, so you can't just buy one or two songs; you've got to sign up for at least a month to download anything. Also their catalog is kind of limited compared to their competitors. They do offer a free 25-download trial, though, so it's worth checking out even if you ultimately decide that plunking down a monthly fee isn't for you.

You are to be commended for wanting to keep things nice and legal, but so far the music industry isn't going out of their way to make that particularly easy or attractive for us. My advice is to vote with your wallet; if we all avoid DRM like the plague, eventually somebody is going to wise up and realize that their customer base is too savvy to fall for that kind of bait-and-switch and start up a more palatable service. Or at least, that's the sort of hopelessly optimistic thinking that lets me sleep at night. (-:

[En Sabah Nur]

Use quicktime or other conversion software to convert in from mp4 to wav or mp3 and you are good to go. if you have Nero, use its music editor to do it. There are so many software that can do it, the list is too big to post. Even if they are DRMed, you can still convert then using other software. I would just use Quicktime, to export it as wav file, then download CDex software or any other and convert your Wav to MP3. Easy.

If you want, send me the files and I can convert them for you. Or teach you how to do it in detail.

[James]

So far none of the big legal music download services are quite as good as just popping down to the local record store, buying your music on one of those archaic shiny spinny-things that I understand our ancestors called "compact discs," and ripping it from there. 99 cents per song is pretty reasonable, but all of the a la carte stores like iTunes and its imitators load their files up with DRM "features" that limit what you can do with your music. Most of the subscription services like Napster also have this nasty little clause in which your music expires a month or two after you cancel your subscription, so if you want to keep listening, you've got to keep paying.
Even when the restrictions in question aren't all that unreasonable, I tend to oppose this sort of thing on general principle. Also there's usually a clause somewhere in the fine print that they can change their conditions at will without any recourse by the customer, which makes my libertarian gut twist.

eMusic (http://www.emusic.com/) is the exception; it sells good old-fashioned standard-file-format non-DRMed mp3s that you can copy, burn, rip, etc. to your heart's content and which never expire. The catch is that there's no a la carte option, so you can't just buy one or two songs; you've got to sign up for at least a month to download anything. Also their catalog is kind of limited compared to their competitors. They do offer a free 25-download trial, though, so it's worth checking out even if you ultimately decide that plunking down a monthly fee isn't for you.

You are to be commended for wanting to keep things nice and legal, but so far the music industry isn't going out of their way to make that particularly easy or attractive for us. My advice is to vote with your wallet; if we all avoid DRM like the plague, eventually somebody is going to wise up and realize that their customer base is too savvy to fall for that kind of bait-and-switch and start up a more palatable service. Or at least, that's the sort of hopelessly optimistic thinking that lets me sleep at night. (-:

Well said. Ultimately, people can "share" MP3's from an official disk, so I see no reason why Itunes and the like feel they should be able to monopolize - especially when their overall album costs are not as amazing competitive as they should be. Yes, it's the ultimate fast transaction, but I'd rather pay a couple of quid less for a CD and get a nice hardcopy storage for my songs in a presented box (otherwise known as CD and inlay) than have floaty binary for the same price.

If it is simply for the disposable era (quick buy and cherry picking album songs) I think I'd prefer a slightly more pricey cost per track (but not much more) and full ownership. If 99 cent song purchases come with stupid strings, I don't think it's really maximizing the potential of the digital industry.

[Nobuyuki sama]

So, I just got iTunes and downloaded some songs at 99 cents a pop, with the intent of buring them to a CD, only to find out they are in an M4P format, which doesn't play on any program that I have other than iTunes itself. I don't have an iPod or mp3 player or anything like that, I just wanted to put the songs on a CD, which I figured would be allowable since I paid for them. It doesn't seem to work out that way.

Yes, you can (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesMac/7.0/en/540x.html).

If the playlist contains songs purchased from the iTunes Store, you can burn the playlist to a CD up to seven times.

[Russkafin]

Thank you everyone, you were all very helpful!