# How do I rip an MP3 CD in the iTunes format?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-rip-an-mp3-cd-in-the-itunes-format/392161>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 14, 2007, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-rip-an-mp3-cd-in-the-itunes-format/392161 "2007-02-14T08:23:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-rip-an-mp3-cd-in-the-itunes-format/392161/21 "2007-02-15T05:43:32Z")

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[QUOTE=Chronos]  
Did you mean to say “10 megabytes for every minute”? 10 MB per second wouldn’t even let you put a single song on the disk.

And my copy of iTunes is somewhat old (6.04), so this may have changed, but it ripped everything in mp3 format by default.  
[/QUOTE]

:smack: Yes. Minute. And that’s still a pretty rough, imprecise measurement as well. I was typing fast.

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**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-rip-an-mp3-cd-in-the-itunes-format/392161/22 "2007-02-15T07:37:27Z")

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Do the MP3 files actually contain correct ID3 Tags?

If so, _Media Monkey_ will organise the files into folders based on the ID3 tags, and rename them if you want.

Take a look at it - as an MP3 sorting tool it is brill - free too (you can buy the Gold version if you need the additional features).

Until **AmaroK** is ported to Windows (go KDE4) Media Monkey is my main MP3 tool.

Si

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**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-rip-an-mp3-cd-in-the-itunes-format/392161/23 "2007-02-15T08:31:04Z")

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> [@Hey you!](#):
>
> I thought that iTunes uses standard ID3 tags, so if the artist and album names were in the metadata when she made the disc, they should still be in there when they got copied onto the disc (and onto your HD). I don’t use WinAmp, but I had assumed that it could extract the metadata and use it. Am I incorrect?

No, but the files don’t have any of the ID3 data. It’s all in that Contents.xml file, so I have to import the music through iTunes to even get the tags put in.

> [@Terminus Est](#):
>
> The MP3s, if they were from iTunes

I doubt they were downloaded legally, though I wouldn’t know for sure.

> [@Terminus Est](#):
>
> Winamp should have a feature that reads these tags and sort the files accordingly. It’s been a while since I’ve used Winamp, so I can’t really help you with it.

It may, but I don’t want it to get organized when I put it in my playlist–I want it to be organized in folders in my music directory.

> [@Terminus Est](#):
>
> iTunes will sort the individual files into separate artist folders, then album folders, then individual tracks. Each file should have a track number and the title of the song.

Yup, it worked. I just wish I didn’t have to use iTunes to do it. The CDs I burn for my coworkers will be organized that way already.

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