fucking i-tunes!

[arguchik]

i bought a new i-pod yesterday. as i was setting it up and syncing it, i got this weird error message informing me that a bunch of songs were not going to be loaded to my i-pod because i was not authorized to play these songs on this computer. WTF? i investigated further and found that most of the disallowed songs are from a lead belly album i purchased (yes, legitimately) through i-tunes, and as far as i can remember i purchased it on this computer. it's possible i purchased it on my old computer and then firewired it over with the rest of my i-tunes library when i bought this computer last spring. in any case, i distinctly remember going through the steps to authorize this computer to play music that i've purchased through i-tunes; and i have definitely played the lead belly album on this computer before. so i went to the apple i-tunes help site and followed their instructions to (re-)authorize this computer* and it kept giving me an "unknown (-2)" error message. (incidentally, i also got an error message when i tried to register the i-pod through i-tunes, and it asks me to register the i-pod every time i plug it into my computer.) when i look at my account in i-tunes, and try to view the music i have purchased through that account, it erroneously tells me that i have not yet purchased music through that account.

now here's the really weird and infuriating part: not only will i-tunes not let me play the entire lead belly album, it also won't let me play, or import to my i-pod, covers of the lead belly song "jack hardy" that are recorded on two albums that i imported into i-tunes from owned CD's!!! (the gun club covered this song on their miami album; and uncle tupelo covered it on no depression.) oddly, the song "where did you sleep last night," which is on the both lead belly CD and nirvana's "MTV unplugged" CD, presents no problem...

i have written apple a very cool-headed message explaining the problem and requesting that they fix it ASAP, but i haven't heard back yet.

edited to add: i forgot to mention that i was prompted to download a new version of i-tunes when i first started to set up the i-pod. i had to disconnect the i-pod and install the software before i could finish setting up the i-pod.


*you're supposed to be able to simply select one of the "offending" songs, click play, and enter your i-tunes password when prompted. this didn't work for me.

Comments

[drjohn.livejournal.com]

It sounds like the file for those songs has play restrictions imposed by iTunes. You made a good faith effort to authorize a new computer to play them. No dice. Now it is time to "fix" the files so they can work on any computer. It is conceivable that you may have a new computer again in a few years, so IMHO it is best to liberate them from the shackles iTunes puts on them now.

I think Senuti (primary use is to pull stuff off of an iPod) will do it. It is nice software. For Windows, I am a little less clued: QTFairUse may do the trick.