Recently I purchased a digital CD from a group whose music I enjoy. I’ve purchased digital music from them in the past and never had an issue as all the files were MP3’s. I’ve also purchased some of their music through the iTunes store—always MP3s.
When I unzipped the newest album I was surprised to discover I had WMA files instead of MP3s. I can play them with the QuickTime player, but I want them in my iTunes library so that I can move them to my iPod. I contacted the group and see if they had MP3’s that I could download, and that opened a can of worms, so here I am with questions and a rant:
First, the customer service gal wrote back and told me that she’d contacted a friend, and her own sister, as they both have Macs. These were the responses:
QUOTE
"The files saved as mp3 work fine on a mac. The one that was saved as a wva did not open without downloading a converter app. We downloaded Smart Converter which was free and then dropped the file into quick time to get it to play and it played just fine."
"It could be that she didn't "extract" the zipped files. Once she does the download from the email, which is a zipped folder, she should see somewhere on her menu to "extract all". Then she chooses where she wants them filed on the computer and should be able to play the "extracted" or "unzipped" files. That's my first guess!"
Honestly, the last response about not unzipping the file irked me. How did this person think I noticed they were wma files if they weren’t unzipped?
Anyhow, I ignored that and checked out “Smart Converter”. Perhaps I’m not understanding, but “Smart Converter” says it’s for video files, and I have audio files and want audio files to play in iTunes.
I did find a tip online about converting using QuickTime, and now throughout every song I hear this nice lady telling me “This is a demonstration of Flip4Mac”. To remove that, I’d have to pay for the professional version of Flip4Mac, and I don’t wish to do that.
Since they’d offered to refund my money, and I didn’t feel like messing around with a converter (personally I think that they should provide the MP3s with a digital download but I didn’t tell them that), I wrote back and requested the refund, and stated that I would wait to see if the album eventually came up for sale in the iTunes stores (several of their albums are there). I also suggested that they note on their site that this one CD was WMA files and not MP3’s.
I received a rather snippy reply back, and I’m thinking I totally don’t understand WMA files:
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The newest CD [title deleted] was sent to us directly from the producer of the CD so although the songs are mp3s, they are in a windows format.
She also informed me that:
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“…checked with multiple Mac owners today who also purchased both CDs and … most were able to download [title deleted] and a few did use the free version of Smart Converter.
So here are my questions:
- Are WMA files actually MP3s in a windows format? My limited understanding is that the WMA format was a windows format that microslush hoped would take over the MP3 market from Apple, and they aren't the same thing at all.
- Are WMA files audio or video?
- Am I totally misunderstanding this "Smart Converter"? If it converts to QuickTime, it's still not playable in iTunes. Has anyone tried this free version for converting WMA files to MP3’s?
- Has anyone ever converted WMA files to MP3 and been able to play music in iTunes?
And now for my real rant.
She pushed my button with this statement in her reply:
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[Group Name] don’t provide any of their music to iTunes nor any other similar sources but that’s not to say something won’t be done illegally.
I wrote her back and told that "Since you've issued me a full refund for all the albums purchased, I’ve removed all the files from my library. I don’t keep music I’ve not paid for, nor do I purchase illegal music—and I’m fairly certain that Apple does not sell illegal music through the iTunes store.
Since some of their albums are available through the iTunes store (and at Amazon), she is either ignorant of the business side of things or implying that Apple sells illegal music.
Really made me mad.While I won't be converting this album, it would be nice to have answers to my questions.
Thanks for letting me vent.
