A reader writes: I just got a Samsung K5 for my birthday, but I bought almost all the tunes on my desktop on iTunes. How can I play the songs I bought on iTunes on the Samsung K5?
Though the answer to this question has been covered before—see Gina's link-tastic post from earlier this year—it bears repeating, if only to break the stranglehold that iPod and iTunes have on digital music.
The good news is that it's completely possible to (eventually) play your iTune-purchased tracks on a non-iPod player. The bad news is that it's a hassle and has some drawbacks.
But first the good news. Since the iTunes tracks in their purchased form will only play on iPods or in iTunes, you'll need to burn these tracks onto a CD using iTunes. Then you need to re-rip the tunes off the CD as MP3 files, either in iTunes or another music player. Since MP3 files have no restrictions, they'll easily transfer to a Samsung K5 or any other player, including your iPod!
And here's the bad news: Converting these tunes to MP3 will likely erase the song ID and album data, so you may well have to manually re-enter song titles. Annoying! And if you have more than 100 songs you want to convert, it'll be a pain to burn the dozens and dozens of CDs you'll need to make the switch. This method is good if you just want to move over a few songs onto a second player.
FYI, there are also some illegal alternatives for stripping the DRM off of iTunes-purchased tunes and subscription-service tunes, but I do not partake in or condone the practice for obvious reasons, so 'nuff said about that.
iTunes-purchased songs aside, there's also the matter of iTunes tracks you've ripped from your own CD collection. Regardless of the music software I'm using, I always rip all my CDs into MP3 format, which will play on just about any player. iTunes usually rips songs into AAC format by default, so make sure you switch the default for "Importing Music" to MP3 (it's in the Edit, Preferences, Advanced, then Importing menu). AAC files will play on some other players, but MP3s will play in pretty much all other players.
Lastly, consider buying tunes at eMusic, which only sells music in MP3 format.
Happy ripping, burning, and transferring!
http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/samiljan/2752;_ylt=At2Abo7upJOY88YF7zexQu8SLpA5
