It won’t be in a proprietary format, but you could very well have two copies of every song on your HD now. Check where your music was before you installed iTunes and then look in the iTunes library file and see if you are doubled up now.
Mr. Blonde, you were saying to mysterio — It won’t be in a proprietary format, but you could very well have two copies of every song on your HD now. Check where your music was before you installed iTunes and then look in the iTunes library file and see if you are doubled up now.
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This can be a “big topic” in explaining it all, but the *bottom line* is that Apple *does not* put anything into a proprietary format when you install their program and build your music library for the iTunes program (from your existing library).
That’s *beyond ridiculous* and if this is being spoken about, it’s totally insane and shows the “flat out ignorance” of way too many Windows people...
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There are two formats that are primarily used by the iTunes program (for your music). That would be MP3 and AAC.
MP3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3
AAC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding
These are two *open* formats for music. The Apple iTunes program uses either one, and even both at the same time, for any music you have. These *are not* proprietary codecs from Apple. They are used by Apple and the iTunes Music Store exclusively uses the open format and codec of AAC for its music sales.
There is one additional item to consider, which has nothing to do with the music file format (or codec), which was something that was originally demanded by the music companies, but is no longer being demanded by them, as Apple convinced them to finally get rid of their *demands* upon Apple for “Digital Rights Management”.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Rights_Management
I will make note here that the movie studios have *not* given up *demanding* that their product sales be protected by DRM, while the music industry basically has given up demanding DRM. You should be aware of who is *demanding* DRM and who is not demanding it (versus being forced into it, or else a “store” cannot sell the product).
I will make note of *one more thing* here, in regards to a format that a music file uses in the iTunes program. This particular one *is* a proprietary format by Apple, but it’s hardly used, unless someone really wants to use it. In fact, I’m betting that most people don’t know about it and that most users never use it and the Apple iTunes program will never convert anything to that particular proprietary format, unless the user *specifically* sets up the program to do that in the first place when “converting” some music file. This is *never* done except by explicit user intervention and choice.
This other proprietary format is the “lossless” format from Apple, which provides for compression but is “lossless”. And some people want that, because if you “rip” your music (i.e., copy it to your computer) from a CD, you can choose a “lossy format” or a “lossless format”.
MP3 and AAC are “lossy formats” (codecs).
Lossy compression
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossy_data_compression
The one that is a “lossless format” (and for those who want it) is
Apple Lossless
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless
Lossless data compression
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_data_compression
A music CD can be 700 or maybe 800 MB of information. You can “compress” that down into a “lossy format” (losing some data in the process and getting lower quality) by using MP3 and/or AAC and getting that down to maybe around 50 MB or less, depending on the “lossy-ness” that you choose to tolerate (i.e., how much quality you want to sacrifice on your music).
And, by the way, the reason why the Apple iTunes Stores chose the “open format” of AAC for their sales (and not MP3) is because of one thing. AAC compress music better than MP3 and provides better quality of sound in less space. It’s a more advanced Codec.
Codec
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codec
There are those who don’t want to lose any quality on their music from that CD rip. Those people who don’t want to lose any quality and yet don’t want to use all the hard drive space that a CD would take up, can choose to use “Apple Lossless” for their “lossless compression”. But, that’s their choice. It will compress the music on the CD to about 40-60% of the original size. That way, there is *absolutely nothing* lost from that original CD and you have a perfect copy, using less space than the original CD.
The other codecs are “lossy” and they lose data that you can never recover again, and you’re not getting “original quality” from a CD. AAC does a better job of not losing as much data from the original, and using less space to do it than MP3. But, Apple iTunes uses either “open format” for its music library, plus the “lossless” codec that it has which is “Apple Lossless”. There are some other lossless formats out there, but Apple doesn’t use those other lossless codecs. If one wants to use those, they can do so, but as a separate format for “storage” (if they wish) and simply convert them over to MP3 or AAC, if they wish (for playing on music devices).
But, what we’re talking about here with any of the “lossless” formats is not really an important consideration for the “mass market” because none of the online music stores (anywhere) sell lossless formats for their music. The music companies would never allow that. However, you can make *your own* lossless formats from your own CDs if you wish.
Basically, we come down to MP3 and AAC as the two *open* and most popular formats (which are *not proprietary*).
Now on the Windows platform, there is a “proprietary format” (development by Microsoft) that is used (i.e, it is *not* an “open” format) — called Windows Media Audio (WMA).
Windows Media Audio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Audio
This can also contain Windows Media DRM...
Windows Media DRM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_DRM
Now, when someone on the Windows platform installs the iTunes Music program, it will allow the user to import the *non-DRM-ed* “Windows Media Audio” into the iTunes Music program space for organizing, detailing, playing and so on. The iTunes Music program will convert those over to a format that will be one of the “open formats” (and not the Microsoft proprietary format). Again, it *cannot* be the DRM-ed version of any of the music files. If they are “DRM-ed” in the Microsoft platform, that music is *stuck* with Microsoft. With Apple DRM-ed music (in the past the music companies demanded it), you can “break free” of the DRM and convert it to the non-DRM-ed format of AAC or MP3 (on iTunes) by going through the procedure that Apple has always allowed for *breaking* the DRM on their music.
So, if your Windows computer has non-DRM-ed WMA files and MP3 files (and also AAC files) on your computer, the iTunes music program will search the hard drive and bring them over into the iTunes program music space, if you respond to the program that you do want to do that. Otherwise, if you have MP3 and AAC elsewhere on your hard drive, it will also allow you to leave it there. But, if you do choose to import into the iTunes Music program space, there will also be a choice of leaving the music there (elsewhere on the hard drive) or to delete it elsewhere on the hard drive, when importing into iTunes.
For the WMA music files, it will have to import them into the iTunes Music program in order to convert them over into an “open format” for iTunes to play them.
All in all — depending on how you make your choices and depending on what is WMA and what is MP3 and what is AAC, on your Windows computer, you may have some files left alone on your hard drive, some duplicated into the iTunes Music program and/or any combination in between, again, depending on your own choices, according to what you’ve instructed the program to do.
The bottom line is that the program is designed to do what you’ve instructed it to do — and also — to protect your original files, if you want them protected and to not delete anything that you don’t want deleted.
That’s the “long version” of the whole thing (but it can even get longer than this if you want to get into some “exquisite detail” of operations...) LOL...
So, yes..., you could have “doubled up” on your hard drive for music, depending upon all the “relevant information” listed up above — BUT — this is in *no way* Apple iTunes putting *anything* into “proprietary format”...
Please don’t spread false information and false rumors around. Be educated about what is happening and you will be a whole lot smarter... :-)