Question about Music Match Music Store

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jstn4102

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Windows Music Store is OUT!!

Hey today i just downloaded musicmatch jukebox 8.1 and it has the music store integrated right into it. I jsut wanted to know if the music match store and the itunes store were on the same network. Both have 200,000 songs available, both price sogns at .99 per song and 9.99 per album, and both let you listen for 30 seconds before buying. I've tried it out and i'm loving it. What i want to know is, is the music match store the music store apple promised to make available to us windows users? or will there be antoher store available by apple to compete with the music math one, that is if they are not really the same store. Did apple, instead of making itunes for windows, just decide to integrate the music store into music match?
 

SpideyPod

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MM store is not the same.
Apples store will be an "ITunes for Windows" and it release will be announced next Thursday.
MM store provides music in WMA format.
iTunes will most likely provide in AAC as it currently does for the MAC version.

MM store is not too bad but if you are an IPod user you will not be able to enjoy what you buy on your IPod as it does not support WMA currently. (if it ever will)
 

jstn4102

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wait so the music i download from the mm store wont be compatible with my ipod?
 

SpideyPod

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That is correct.

"Napster 2.0, Musicmatch, and BuyMusic.com offer songs in Windows Media Audio, or WMA, format which means they are incompatible with Apple's iPod which can play Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format files from Apple's iTunes Music Store.

Josh Bernoff, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that Apple wants to use its upcoming music service as an incentive to sell iPods," reports Katie Dean for Wired News. "'The problem is that nobody can be compatible with an iPod without help from Apple,' Bernoff said. 'Apple has very little incentive to support that because they would rather sell iPods than support anyone else's device.'"


Full article:
http://www.macdailynews.com/comments.php?id=P1925_0_1_0
 

c.c.r.

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Heyas, SpideyPod,

I hope you don't mind the copy work, but I've pasted your most recent post into a sticky thread in the MusicMatch forum. I think that it raises an excellent point.

MusicMatch users may naturally upgrade their software. They'll see the store and buy music. It won't work on their iPods and they'll be super mad. I think it's a great thing that this conversation has brought it up in such plain terms. Thanks to both of you!

Jstn4102,

Converting wma to mp3 or wav is never that graceful. I hear that there's a bit of quality loss, and I'm not positive that if you've purchased these songs from MMD that you're allowed to convert them to .mp3.

Converting a file from one format to another simply requires the right tool. You can surf about on www.download.com to find a few, I think. Media Center 9 comes with a tool called "Media Editor" which can be used to decode and encode using various formats. I don't know if it can handle these .wma files, but it handles a lot of different formats.
 

Texipod

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I use this: http://www.goldwave.com/ to convert files from WMA to mp3. It will do batch conversions and allow you to choose seperate directories for in/out. I haven't experienced any loss of sound quality. I have been using goldwave for about 5 years.
 

SpideyPod

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c.c.r. said:
Heyas, SpideyPod,

I hope you don't mind the copy work, but I've pasted your most recent post into a sticky thread in the MusicMatch forum. I think that it raises an excellent point.

MusicMatch users may naturally upgrade their software. They'll see the store and buy music. It won't work on their iPods and they'll be super mad. I think it's a great thing that this conversation has brought it up in such plain terms. Thanks to both of you!

Jstn4102,

Converting wma to mp3 or wav is never that graceful. I hear that there's a bit of quality loss, and I'm not positive that if you've purchased these songs from MMD that you're allowed to convert them to .mp3.

No problem Kurt.

Actually I am wondering myself whether it is in fact possible to re-encode a DRM enabled WMA into another format. That seems like something the DRM would prohibit a user from doing.
But it would be a good test.

Jstn4102, or anyone that has purchased music from MM Napster 2.0 or BuyMusic.com, give it a shot and see if you are able to re-encode that WMA. I am pretty sure it would not work but I would love to know how the file reacts or what the message that the software you are using gives you when it is not successful.

If there is a message at all of course. Microsoft probably just skipped past any useful message about the copyright scheme and sends your computer right to the Blue Screen of Death! ;)

In any case give it a try and let us know how it works.

Thanks
 
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jesaja

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If it doesn't work perhaps you can just make an audio cd out of them within mmjb, it should be able to do this, and then just rerip that cd to mp3...

jojo
 

jstn4102

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ya i've thought of that too, but that i sjust way too much work to get the song on to my ipod. burn a cd and re rip te song i just burnt back onto my computer. I guess i'll just have to wait till itunes music store is out.I eve asked music match technical support, because in previous versions of music match you were able to convert WMA's to MP3s or WAVs and it did an excellent job. But with the release of this music store, this feature has been disabled. Also, i think apple has made the wrong move with the restriction of WMA's on the ipod. By not supporting this format, they will not increase sales. Many PC users who already have files in WMA form will not buy an mp3 player if they are going to have to convert their 10Gb of wma files into mp3 or wavs. Sure, ipod users will be put into an itunes-only music store bondage, but this will only happen to the current ipod owners. Those who are thinking of buying a new player will not buy an ipod because it wont support the files from the other music stores, especially napster 2.0 which has an arsenal of over 500,000 songs compared to the itunes 200,000.
 
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