No, you can play the track as many times as you want. The issue is when you transfer the file to another device (i.e. laptop, external hard drive, ipod). It only allows you to transfer the file to so many devices so if you’ve already transferred it over to many places and you later buy a computer, the DRM will no longer allow you to copy the file.
Apple allows 5 concurrent devices to be authorized on an iTunes account. So, you could have your home computer, your laptop, and 3 iPods all able to play your purchased music. If you want to add another device, you need to de-authorize an existing one first.
You can copy the file as many times as you want. And it will play on as may ipods as you like. But you can only authorize up to five computers to play the music that you have bought. If you want to play them on an additional computer you have to deauthorize one of the previous ones.
For the OP - whatever ipod you bought five years ago, an ipod with equivilant or even better function will be available for a much cheaper price now. The ones you can buy for the price you spent back then are higher models with much more functionality/memory etc.
And it’s worth taking it to the apple store. They might be able to fix it for free or cheap. Sometimes they’ll even just hand you a new ipod.
This. Is what I was getting at.
Welcome to the land of the free, where you can’t play music you bought legally.
Perhaps you only bought the right to play the music on five computers at any given time.
If you are unhappy with that, trudge down to your local music shop and buy a CD. For most people, it’s not a big deal.
iPod, therefore iAm.
sorry - nothing substantive to contribute - just couldn’t resist. it’s late. 
I’d stay with the same platform just for ease of downloading his existing library. If $200 is not doable, then you might try looking for a refurbished one.
An mp3 player is a computer. Please cite where op mentioned playing the tunes on more then 5 computers.
OP just wants to replace a broken mp3 player without having some corporate suit dictating what mp3 player she uses. Yet she can’t without either wasting a bunch of disks or breaking the law. What’s the sense in that?
It’s just stupid. Content companies are stupid control freaks to try to push this and congress is the goat they’re screwing in the barn. It always gets cracked by real pirates so it doesn’t stop piracy. Meanwhile people like the OP are turned into criminals if they don’t wanna waste a mess of cds or blow hundreds of dollars on a replacement ipod.
Once you go Mac, you never go back!
(Please insert Northern Piper’s apology here.)
Do you sniff these threads out, or what?
Apparently.
Unfortunately I was busy yesterday and now have three pages of catching up to do in the Pit
I don’t think this is quite accurate…I think you can authorize 5 computers at any given time and copy to any number of iPods/iPhones without worrying about limits. I think this is because without significant effort and hacking, you can’t copy the songs from the iPod to another computer, which is what the copy protection is intended to limit…
If her husband had bought the music via Amazon’s download service, or eMusic, or other DRM-free services, he wouldn’t have that problem. (I say this as an iPod user who gets music from multiple sources, including CDs.) That was the hook in the bait offer from Apple for buying their pretty cheap, convenient downloaded music.
Also, if you go to the iTunes Store and click the iTunes Plus link in the right margin, it will show you how many iTunes-purchased songs and albums can be upgraded to iTunes Plus for an extra ‘upgrade’ fee. It tosses your old music in the Recycle Bin and downloads new DRM-free songs to your library.
You are correct about the limits. See here for details. Note that it’s not at all difficult to copy files off of an iPod. There are dozens of free programs that will do it. However, without an authorized computer/device, you’ll find it difficult to play the DRMed files as music.
DRM sucks, doesn’t it? In the future, remember that you’re not really buying something with DRM. You’re renting it for as long as it’s convenient to the rights-holder’s business model.
Man, some you people kill me.
Yes, DRM and the RIAA (checks forum) don’t deserve holiday cookies this year. Apple isn’t the only online provider that supplies media with DRM. They don’t have a monopoly on being restricted to DRM. Yes some online stores do not have DRM. Possibly in the future none of them will (I wish this were true, but today it isn’t)
When you buy a song from the iTunes store you are buying the right to play it on up to 5 computers at the same time and an unlimited number of iPods. You are also buying the right to copy it onto a CD (fundamentally an unlimited number of times). It says all of this in EULA that none of us read. In some cases this is much better then buying a cassette that only lasted until your cars tape deck ate the tape or buying a cd that lasted until the back looked like a road map.
Apple themselves give you instructions on how to rip your music purchases to a CD then import them back into iTunes if you have decided to use a competitors music player. This is not a violation of the DCMA. I don’t get why this is unfair. Did you take all your cassettes back to the music store and demand CDs when your new car didn’t come with a tape player?
Honestly for 250 songs, if not having a iPod means that much to you. I’d burn them to a CD and move on. IMO apple does make a superior player and I believe this is part of why they have the market share they have. Yes, there are cheaper players out there, I guess price alone isn’t driving the market. Apple has always charged premium prices for premium products. Complaining about how expensive iPods are is like complaining how expensive BMWs are.
Can we really not remember what it was like prior to online music sales? Apple and it’s ‘unfair’ music store were key players in making this available mainstream. If it wasn’t Apple it would have been another company and without DRM it’s not likely legal affordable downloads would be available to the masses.
Just for the record, I stopped at the Apple store - all those nifty pale blue t-shirts and people talking techno, it was pretty cool. We didn’t have an appointment (and I had two 4-yr-olds in tow) but the young man at the front of the store talked to me anyway.
My husband’s iPod is 5 yrs old and was part of a special Hewlett-Packard promotion, so they don’t service them anymore (although the Apple employee was happy to direct me to another company that would).
I may buy my husband a refurbished iPod from Apple’s online store, which this employee also told me about, they run about $160 or so.
OTOH, spending even that much on something fragile for my husband is probably NOT a good idea - he acknowledges that he dropped his iPod a couple of times and also left it in the car overnight in sub-zero weather more than once. Really, a $50 unit might be a better choice for him.
Thanks for your information! I really appreciate being able to ask questions of persons more knowledgeable than myself.
Ferret Herder, that may be just the thing to do.
I’m waiting delivery on my first Smart Phone.
Sync your BlackBerry up with your iTunes -
It’s free software from BlackBerry. Looks legit.
I have no idea if this works or not.
Anyone try this?
fessie If your hubby has a BlackBerry, he may not need an iPod.
oops. just read the fine print -
1 For BlackBerry Media Sync to work your media enabled BlackBerry smartphone must be connected to your computer via a USB cable. Certain music files may not be supported by the media player, including incompatible file types and files that contain digital rights management technologies.
If he hates technology so much, maybe something like this would be good.
Most of the earlier innacuracies in this thread have been cleared up. so I’d add my IMHO:
BURN YOUR MUSIC TO CDS!
a) It strips off the DRM at a minor loss in quality that it sounds like you won’t miss (based on his treatment of music in general)
b) It backs up your music in the event of a catastropic failure. (pitch the CD’s in a firesafe, along with your tax returns, insurance info, and investments, sleep better at night)
c) Buy your music in non-drm form (mp3’s from Amazon, DRM free from the Itunes music store, destroy your karma by bittorrenting it online)
Apple’s job is to (not in order)
- Sell product
- Placate the distributor
- Give you a better experience than the competitors, allowing them to do #1.
- Provide an ecosystem to keep you in the fold. That ecosystem means your iPod works in the car, Your AppleTV plays movies with a single click, your music streams from your PC/Mac to the wireless basestation and out your stereo. Your podcasts are always hot and fresh and waiting for your daily commute on Monday morning, and your Clock radio wakes you to whatever your favorite songs are on your iPod.
- Change the entire lineup EVERY YEAR with incremental improvements so that they can do #1 above.
Nobody does this better than Apple. Some folks have different offerings, and may be better in one or two cases (e.g. $15 all you can eat subscriptions and a radio in your portable player) but nobody has made the decisions that have sold the most music players like Apple.
Like it or lump it, everybody does it, it’s just a reality of this moment in time (the DRM wars?) and it hurts the least with Apple.
Now, There are 4Gb iPod Nanos and (at least on black friday) $129 8Gb nanos. They have no movign parts, would play all the music it sounds like he’s got, and do a pretty good job of replacing that FIVE YEAR OLD IPOD that just died. Five years for something like that is pretty good. I’d bet replacing it with a flash based playe would mean get gets MORE than five years out of the replacement.