Getting music off of an ipod

[Ben Hussey]

Does anyone know if there is any way, by a program or otherwise, to take off music you have put on your ipod? It's something that seems to me would be really useful what with having multiple computers and ipods within the family.

 

[Archonsod]

It's much easier if your using a Linux based OS, though I think there's also methods using Windows.

You need to hack the DRM though, so unless you're in Norway it's somewhat illegal. Or you can pay $50 for a legit doobrie to do it, but I don't think you can actually play the tracks once they're off without putting them back on the I pod.

Googling the correct search term should help

 

[James]

You mean it isn't possible to take them off? That's dumb. One more reason not to get one. What about other MP3 players?

 

[Archonsod]

Standard MP3 players are essentially USB flash drives with an MP3 player built into the BIOS. You can freely exchange any type of file between the two, assuming it will fit (though naturally, you won't be able to play anything but audio tracks). Most use a mini version of good old media player, so basically if you can play it on your PC, it will play on an MP3 player.

The I Pod uses Apple's proprietary DRM technology, which pretty much locks you into using their own store. You can only play music purchased from their store or ripped from your own CD's on the I Pod without hacking the DRM. You can take tunes off, but I don't think the DRM allows you to play them on anything but the I Pod or the PC which purchased the track.

Interestingly enough, Norway recently ruled Apple's fairplay DRM illegal under contractual law, while the EU is investigating it under competition law. Could be fun in the future.

 

[Cymro]

So you can take them off - otherwise you'd have to get a new iPod every 40000 songs

 

[13 Spider Bloody Chain]

I believe Apple prevented people from taking songs off of the iPods as an anti-piracy thing.

My friends managed to (ilegally) hack into an iPod using, ironically, a Macintosh a year or two ago 

 

[Janus]

Screw the iPod, you can get plenty of cheaper players which don't have that DRM crap.

I like Archos myself, I have one of their old Jukebox Recorder models which has outstanding audio quality. It's of the generation of MP3 players which use laptop hard drives, and I have a 60gb drive in mine which stores a large part of my music collection. Cool little bugger, has a Li-Ion battery which lasts for 10 hours and charges in about an hour. I got it off of eBay a few years back where it was listed as non-working; turned out it had a bad hard drive, which I replaced. I had actually been buying broken ones to salvage the hard drives from them, it just turned out the problem was the hard drive in this one so I decided to keep it. I've got the Rockbox OS installed on it, pretty sweet stuff.

 

[leprechaun]

Am I the only one here with a little 1GB Creative?

Only I bought some Sennheiser headphones for them.

 

[Cymro]

I have a 128mb Creative Nano.

 

[mrcrotch]

I have a 30gb iPod. And I can take music off mine..

 

[Buxton]

Theres a really easy way - Basically unistall all traces of iTunes, but back up your songs first. Then reinstall iTunes and plug in your iPod, it should say something like, "This version of iTunes is not the same as the one associated with this iPod - Update and Erase?". Basically, it synchronises your iPod with the new iTunes, and since the new iTunes has nothing on it, neither will your iPod.

Bingo.

 

[Ben Hussey]

Am I the only one here with a little 1GB Creative?

Only I bought some Sennheiser headphones for them.

I had that but dropped it in the toilet (it wasn't funny at the time)

Screw the iPod, you can get plenty of cheaper players which don't have that DRM crap.

Well, I got given the iPod for one, and I wasn't going to say, hey wait, I wanted a creative/iRiver/Whatever plus the iPod has nice interface, looks the prettiest out of all players and has good battery time so my only qualm with it is that I can't get music back off it.

 

[Ben Hussey]

Ahah! I now can remove music from my iPod, however I am not going to describe how as it quite probably breaks the law, if not overseas then definately in New Zealand where it technically is illegal to put CD's onto an iPod (not supposed to have more than one copy of a CD )