Just a quick question:
If you buy music off the itunes site and then download it, does this mean that the songs are registered on your itunes account so that if all things go to hell and you lose the songs you downloaded that you can redownload them? Or is it a one shot deal?
It’s a one shot deal. Download them to your i-Tunes, then burn a CD in case something goes tragically wrong.
You can copy them onto as many as five other computers. You do this by logging on to the i-Tunes store from each computer and authorizing it to play whatever songs are associated with your account.
Hmm… Which is it? One time deal or up to five associated computers?
It’s both. You can copy them to five other computers, but you cannot download them from Apple more than once.
Technically (IIRC), you can copy to as many computers as you like. It will only run on the up to 5 computers your iTunes account has been “authorized” on
If you burn it as WAV format and then back as MP3, you can do whatever you want with it.
Yeah, burn as an audio CD, and then re-rip it as unencumbered MP3.
iTunes does offer a backup option, where you can burn the DRMed files to a DVD/CDR, that should work if something happens to the files on your computer.
Apple does have a policy that in extreme circumstances / catastrophic hard drive failure, you can re-download purchases if you talk to them. It’s a one-time special deal, though.
Wil Wheaton, for instance, got his music back (and he didn’t even have to ask).
There are programs to convert the DRM-protected ACC files to mp3. There used to be one that acted as an authorized computer and decrypted the files as they downloaded, but Apple changed the workings so as to stop that. There are still ones that exploit the analog hole though, and basically record them as they play in iTunes. I’m assuming the quality is lower, but you do get them as play-anywhere mp3 files.
Just to reiterate what others have said:
You can make as many copies of your music as you’d like. However, it will only be playable on five computers at a time.
Unless you remove the DRM - but the only way to currently do that compromises the audio quality.
Burning to CD removes the DRM without compromising the audio quality (but you do have to keep it in a lossless format, which will probably be much bigger than the original file).
Actually, the programs didn’t decrypt them - they simply managed to get them directly, without using iTunes.
I only add this nitpick because it explains why re-downloading is difficult for Apple to allow. Apple doesn’t store DRM-wrapped files on the iTS servers (probably to make it faster). It is iTunes (the program running on your computer) which adds the DRM to the file and keys it to the user. Since the file itself knows which computers it’s authorized to play on, re-downloading a song would, theoretically, allow you to authorize the same song in different ways, and cats and dogs would begin to live together as a result.