Only a couple years behind the curve, I just downloaded my first song from iTunes. It was Fanfare by Eric Matthews, a song I first heard on Hang All DJ’s by 2manydjs, a group that sliced, spliced, and blended all kinds of songs into 40-something head-spinning tracks no longer than three minutes each (most are only about one minute).
iTunes worked like a charm. I searched for the song, found it, clicked Buy, entered my info, and the song was mine. Sweet! I played it in iTunes right away and felt the thrill of instant gratification. But then I tried to play it in Windows Media Player and WMP choked on the song. If WMP couldn’t handle it, then neither would my non-Apple mp3 player.
On closer examination, I discovered that iTunes songs are not “.mp3”. They’re “.m4p,” so they only play in Apple products like iTunes and the iPod. Frickin’ Apple hippie bastards. I knew some PC hacker dude out there in internet-land had to have created a conversion program, so I combed Google and found Hymn Project.
It works like a charm. If you’ve got a PC and are downloading songs from iTunes, download Hymn Project’s program called JHymn. It’s got a GUI (pretty pictures and buttons to click) and everything, so you don’t need any computer-savviness to use it.
Ok, sales pitch over. Oh, and I should also mention this thing is free.
Comments (5)
Associating hippies with a closed, proprietary system of rights limitation is a little off the mark, no? Hymn is cool, but watch out when you upgrade iTunes. All of your cracked songs will break.
Posted by Aaron | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
URL: http://
erik - i'm sorry for your frustration. i hereby give you free and complete license to convert every single iTunes song you've downloaded. i'm a lawyer. or i'm in law school. so i can say these things and they are binding. okay, next. sophia - that rules. i'm all over it. how is it that you always know about the latest and greatest in new and interesting sexual endeavors? heather - amen. apple blows. so they're really pretty and have great graphics, video, and audio software. we have excel and notepad, dammit.
Posted by p-man | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
URL: http://
apple blows. there, i said it. i mean, i'll use them, unlike some mac snobs who think having to touch a pc is soooo beneath them, but they just bug me. i don't really give a crap about how trendy and colorful they look. whatev. i think at one point i downloaded itunes for something or other, but never use it. i also don't own an mp3 player. or a digital camera. i'm not a technophobe, just poor.
Posted by heather | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
speaking of ipods, check this out: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8681666/site/newsweek/
Posted by sophia | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16
URL: http://nottotallyinept.blogspot.com
i hear you on this. i've only bought a few songs from itunes and maybe an album or two, and i'm just not down with it. here's my problem--by default, you can only play a song purchased with iTunes on 5 different computers. for a variety of reasons, this blows and is lame. there's a way around it, but it's convoluted and equally lame. i bought an album: why can't i at least PLAY it anywhere i want? now i am angry again, thanks a lot for nothing.
Posted by erik | February 10, 2007 8:16 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:16