iNorah

Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve paid for an downloaded a song online via Apple’s iTunes. $0.99 for Norah Jones’ new single “Sunrise” was worth every penny. The system itself worked pretty well once I figured out where my shopping card was located within the software. (It’s hiding under the Music Store menu item on the left.) Ultimately, the song downloads in Apple’s AAC format which is both secure and only playable through the iTunes software or on a iPod (which I don’t have.) In order to get the song into an MP3 format so I could play it on my MP3 player, I needed to first burn it to a CD. You can do this as an MP3 file or an CD Audio file (then convert it back to an MP3.) What I would like to be able to do it just convert it straight to an MP3 on my hard drive, bypassing the need to burn a CD as part of the process. (Conversion from MP3 to AAC is built in, just not the other direction.) The security feature worked o.k. for me. I was able to send the file to another computer with iTunes and play it once I logged into my account. This doesn’t ultimately prevent sharing as once you’ve got it on a CD the file is no longer secured but it does slow it down a bit.