Tip

iPO Quick Tip - iTunes: Quick Change Song Formats

Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 7:30 AM - by

iTunes handles all kinds of tasks from organizing your music library to updating your iPod or iPhone software. It also converts music files to your preferred audio format with a single mouse click.

Here's how:

  • Find a song in your iTunes library that you want to convert to your default audio format. In my case, that's AAC.
  • Control-click, or right-click, the track and choose Convert Selection to AAC. If you prefer a different audio format, like MP3 or or AIFF, the contextual menu will show that format instead of AAC.


iTunes offers quick access to its audio format conversion feature.

I use this trick when I have an audio file format that I want to convert to AAC from another audio format and I don't want to take the time to launch another application to handle the conversion for me. iTunes always handles the job for me without any hassle.


iTunes supports several file import formats.

If you want to import or convert audio files using a different format, iTunes can manage that for you, too. Just change your default import option:

  • While in iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences.
  • Click the Advanced tab.
  • Click the Importing tab.
  • Choose the audio format you want to use from the Import Using pop-up menu.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Oct 08, 2007 3:46 pm

Cautionary notes:

- This does not work with music purchased from the iTunes Store nor Audible audiobooks.

- About the only "quick" thing about it is getting it started. The process itself takes about as long as ripping a song from a CD.

- You should end up with two copies of any converted songs. The copy in the new format does not replace the previous copy; you'll have to manually change which copy is used in playlists, for example.

- There may be some quality loss in the process, just as there would be if you burned a CD, then ripped music from the CD.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:37 pm

this is an old story, as old as the itunes itself

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