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How do I have iTunes rip CDs into MP3 format?

I'm trying to use Apple's slick iTunes program to copy my music CDs into MP3 format so I can download them to both my MP3-capable cellphone and my Sony PSP, but it seems like on the Mac it wants to produce AAC and on the PC it prefers WMA formats. What gives, and how do I change it?

Dave's Answer:

I'm also a bit fan of iTunes, I have to admit, and find it a great app, particularly for free (you can download it from the Apple site: download iTunes), but I have also found what you're saying to be frustrating.

Fortunately, if you don't mind digging into the preferences, you can change your default music format forevermore and find that every CD you rip is ready to go onto any MP3 player you'd like, from a Sony PSP to a Nokia or Motorola MP3-capable cellphone.

On the PC, choose Controls --> Preferences..., then click on the Advanced tab and go to Importing:

Apple iTunes: Advanced Importing Preferences

You can see here that the default format on my PC is AAC (sounds like yours is probably set to WMA, Windows Media Audio). Click on the "Import Using" pop-up and you'll see that MP3 is one of the possible formats. Choose it, and click "OK".

Now let's experiment by actually ripping a CD. I'll choose one of my favorite Sting CDs from my library for this task, Sacred Love. I insert it into the PC and after just a few seconds it appears in iTunes and all I have to do is click on the "Import CD" button on the top right and it'll start copying all the music onto my computer:

Importing Songs from a CD in Apple's iTunes for Windows

It takes a few minutes, but eventually I have a copy of all the music files in the folder (ready for this?) My Documents / My Music / iTunes / iTunes Music / Artist / Album. Here's what I mean:

iTunes Music Library: Sting's Sacred Love

Though the filename suffix isn't shown, these are all in MP3 format, just as we'd hoped, and any of them can easily be copied onto the MP3 player of your choice.

If you're running on a Macintosh, the process is only slightly different. The Preferences option can be found on the iTunes menu item, and once you get there, again choose "Advanced" and "Importing":

iTunes for the Mac, Advanced Importing Preferences

Again, you can easily choose MP3 as the default format, rather than AAC, and you'll be in good shape.

That should get you going with iTunes. If you are using Windows Media Player instead, please see the following to learn how to change it to create MP3 rips instead:

• Producing MP3 files with Windows Media Player

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Comments

You cannot rip music to WMA with iTunes. If on the PC that's what you get, you're not using iTunes.

Posted by: Johan at January 7, 2006 12:22 AM

how do u change the format for downloaded itunes videos to be compatible with a psp?

Posted by: g3 at March 11, 2006 6:12 PM

You cannot do that, g3. The videos from the iTunes store are all protected with a digital rights management system.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at March 11, 2006 11:00 PM

Yeah but isn't there a way to get your psp to play the aac format which is the same as M4p?

Posted by: fab9000x at May 19, 2006 12:46 PM

THANK YOU THANK YOU I have been trying to get music on my PSP for days now and I finally did it because of you! I finally realized the thing about the Mp3 files. Thank you so much.

Posted by: Jake at June 7, 2006 4:19 PM

hey Dave,

I have been helping my son load music onto his PSP and I found your site. Scrolling down through all these kids and people tossing out all these questions to you reminded me of that cartoon where the old man listens to all the childrens wishes and they come out in an unending stream all overlapped and blurry, and he wants to help every one. This is a BEAUTIFUL thing you're doing here!!! God Bless!!

PS you helped us get the music going too!!!!

Posted by: Sean Delgado at June 7, 2006 8:57 PM

Is there a way to change the tunes I've already ripped to mp3 files? I can't get the songs and cd's I've ripped to our G5 to play when I have my ipod hooked up to xbox 360. This is weird because it will play songs that were put on the ipod from our old computer and my brother's computer, just not the G5.

Posted by: matt at June 16, 2006 2:42 AM

You can play AAC files on the PSP - you just need to change the extender so they're recognised.

Posted by: Barry Norton at September 12, 2006 4:49 AM

How do I copy music from a cd onto my pc?

Posted by: Lou Balazs at October 28, 2006 2:00 PM

is there a quick way to change all existing tracks on i-tunes to mp3 as i have thousands of them on there. cheers steve

Posted by: steve at November 17, 2006 8:47 AM

How can I set up to have my favourite song turn on the same time as when my Window is turning on.

Posted by: napat at February 24, 2007 4:18 AM

I see my question posted but not answer or a link to answer. Here goes. All the files already downloaded in itunes, how do you change them into mp3 files...........
thanks,
lois

Posted by: Lois at March 24, 2007 10:38 AM

i dont get this... and god bless anyone that does! thank you..

Posted by: george at April 19, 2007 6:44 PM

Lois&george, just try NoteBurner and I have used it to convert iTunes to mp3 for several months.

It works as great as advised.

Posted by: fifi at April 23, 2007 1:54 AM

WHEN CHANGE MY ITUNES TO MP3 HOW MUCH MUSIC WILL ALLOW ME TO PUT ON A CD.

Posted by: BOWMAN at April 26, 2007 11:09 AM

If you use NoteBurner, you can convert iTunes to mp3 in very quick way. Normally, you can burn about 600MB one time.

Posted by: fifi at April 29, 2007 1:14 AM

ready for this answer i spent hours being pissed off about this whole converting business. i loaded all my cds then figured out they were not in mp3 format.and was so annoyed when i found out how easy it was

after you changed your default to mp3 which you are shown in the tables above then you can just right click your song and it has an option to convert to mp3.....grrr why didn't i see that one hours ago?

Posted by: angie at May 16, 2007 12:24 AM

Hi Guys,I was wondering how may single tracks will fit onto a normal 80min CD.With an average trak being about say 7 minutes.I have set my defaults and tunes are already in MP3 format.
I know this may be a stupid question to some of you, but i'm a NOOB at this.
Any input is greatfully recieved.

Posted by: Matty at May 22, 2007 9:42 AM

Thanks for the info on MP3 conversion. I have a MAC. Question is, is there any way to convert all the existing music on my ITunes so that it can play and copy on MP3 format? Or is it not possible to do that?
Thanks.

Posted by: Sanjay at May 25, 2007 8:49 AM

For the guys asking how to change your library of Itunes files on m4a format to mp3, first you do the changes described to set Itunes to encode on mp3 format, then select all the files you want to convert, and while holding the control key, right click and you will get a menu with the option "convert selection to mp3" and click on it. Itunes will automatically convert all your selected files.

Posted by: George at May 27, 2007 12:38 AM

how do i get TV shows onto my PSP!!! every time i try to put a show in a file, a message comes up saying i dont have enough space. I also dont have a file called video, SOOOOO, COULD YOU PLEEEEEZ HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: AROE at May 29, 2007 3:51 PM

Question. How do you make a mp3CD. I think that's what they're called, when you have hours of stuff on a Cd instead of just 80mins worth,. I have got windows media player with most of my music on there, but I'd like to create a compressed CD and free up some space. I also use real player
Thanx

Posted by: sandy at July 3, 2007 12:33 PM

how do covert protected itunes format songs into mp3?

Posted by: yole! at July 5, 2007 6:10 AM

I tried NoteBurner ( www.noteburner.com ) to convert all my purchased music to MP3 for my cell phone and MP3 player on my car. NoteBurner is very fast and does a perfect job.

Posted by: dadofbrook at July 18, 2007 12:28 AM

How do I import into itunes, audio talks (MP3's)from my documents. What I have been able to do is import them into Library-Music. However, the name-description designation has no relationship to the name of the file in my documents.

Posted by: pcray at July 28, 2007 9:44 AM

This is a good source for information. Kudo's to every human - acting...human.

Peace,
THG

Posted by: Tra at December 26, 2007 1:54 PM

i-tunes sucks. you can only use it if you have an i-pod. and i didnt know that and bought 15 songs and now they are good for nothing

Posted by: john at January 3, 2008 2:58 PM

This has been SOOOOO helpful.
Thank you so VERY much

Posted by: janet at January 23, 2008 10:53 PM

XP or whoever tells me I lost a basic part of my
Itunes, namely I cannot access my paid for library and the store, etc. How do I go about
reinstalling so that I do not go on as a new client but keep all my stuff intant.
HELP

Posted by: Muriel at February 20, 2008 9:03 PM

How do i put a video on my itunes onto my PSP?

Posted by: Csimmons at March 5, 2008 6:39 PM

THANK YOU.

Posted by: Thankful at March 7, 2008 9:41 PM

I BUY my songs from iTunes, but I want to change them into mp3 format. Would burning it to a cd then importing the songs back as mp3 work?

Answer soon, Cubinj

Posted by: cubinj at March 24, 2008 9:27 AM

Dear Sir,
I would kindly want to know that how to change audio songs into Mp3 format as I have to load it in my Mobile. Sir, even my computer does not play any of my audio CD.please kindly help me.
Sir I am waiting for your humble reply.

Your's Mr Jolly. Writer.

Posted by: Mr Jolly Writer at March 26, 2008 5:01 AM

Well I would really like to know how to get music and videos/movies for my
zune on itunes...or If that doesn't work how do I burn cd's on itunes like how do I get the songs on the cd?

Posted by: Reann at March 29, 2008 12:25 PM

Ok i have about 2700 Songs on itunes i would like to convert all of them to mp3s. they are all in differnt directorys and if possable i would like to convert them if it takes a few days thats fine but i dont want to babysit it. is this possable?

Posted by: Shaun at March 30, 2008 2:35 PM

I have ripped all my personal music collection (17,000+ songs) into MP3 format..I am curious if I can convert BACK to iTunes original format long enough to load onto my iPod (for the sake of conserving space), then convert BACK AGAIN to MP3 in the iTunes for burning to CD? I have an 80G 5G ipod, but not sure if 20,000 songs in mp3 is a reality.

Posted by: Sherry at May 26, 2008 11:05 AM

i followed your instructions on converting itunes into mp3 format however i still don't know how to transfer the songs onto the scan disk mp3 player my husband owns (my kids and i have ipods). i am trying to prevent having to sit load all our cds into the windows media player library as i have already set up a library in itunes and it took a long time. your web site had gotten me further than any other but i am not quite there. i not good with computers so please help.

Posted by: christine at June 15, 2008 11:47 AM

Hello, I see many people asking the same question, but I don't see the answer. I have burned many cd's to my ibook g4. I assume they were accepted as aac as that is what the preferences were set to. I have since changed it to mp3 but have not downloaded another cd. how can I change from aac to mp3 after the fact so that I can put the songs onto my new palm handheld?
Thank you in advance.

Posted by: eric at June 21, 2008 10:06 PM

hey i got a question
how do you convert an **html document** song to mp3????
send an email

Posted by: djstiv at August 9, 2008 2:10 PM

great stuff! thnx

ab kuijer

Posted by: ab at November 10, 2008 9:35 AM

Is it possible to change songs that were bought on iTunes songs into mp3 format to put on a generic iPod?

Posted by: Kassie Becca at December 26, 2008 5:00 PM

I would like to know in detail,how do Iupload my music to mp3 format and then into my personal file?

Posted by: Aaron Bray at February 22, 2009 11:19 AM

How can I rip a DVD to my ipod

Posted by: Yolanda Baker at March 10, 2009 11:58 AM

i love u man........i 'v e been trying for hours until i got this this web page.....i'm making a vaation video and as adding music. this one song that i wanted to play in video as unable to because of codec file error. i read this site got problem resolved in a matter of 2 minutes....thank u....problem was so easy to fix

Posted by: shivanand at April 13, 2009 5:18 PM

hey, i did everything u said, got it changed to mp3 but it wont let me copy it? what do i do

Posted by: rik at May 25, 2009 5:29 PM

Is there a way to burn an itunes file to a CD then upload it on another library with the information not just Track01,track02, etc...

Posted by: Alicia at June 3, 2009 12:01 PM

Dave, I do not have itunes on my windows 64bit computer. I understand it's needed to copy my CD to an IPOD. What should I download.

Posted by: Mary Barton at June 23, 2009 4:17 PM

hello dave ,actually u know i have been trying to burn some songs from itunes , but the prob is itunes dont burn some of them songs ,,not even windows media player. i think those files are mpeg4 formate ,,but i convert all my songs to mp3 format in itunes,,can u please ,,please tell me how can i burn those songs ,,any suggestions will be appritiated, thank you.

Posted by: jaymin at September 18, 2009 11:30 PM

You need to update this with the new version of Itunes, 9.0 for mac. It is getting harder and harder to get done what you want with all the talk about anti-piracy.

Posted by: Bill Wynne at October 2, 2009 6:20 AM

Hi, is there a way to change existing tracks on itunes to an MP3 format so that I can burn a disc with mp3 files that will play on the mp3 cd player in my car? Must one buy software from the likes of allmusicconverter or noteburner, and which one is the best?

Posted by: Malcolm at October 16, 2009 9:00 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!