Also, I bet not on third party players? Unless you convert the song to mp3, which of course, is a new feature that Apple added to their ITunes software recently. Versus having to burn the song to a cd and then rip the cd back to an MP3 get it in MP3 format.
I do give Apple credit for dealing with the DRM issue and the media companies. After napster, everyone ran from the media companies yet Apple faced and successfully convinced them that there was money to be had if their songs and movies were sold legally. A LOT OF MONEY.
That's not my experience. In iTunes, set your iTunes Preferences -> General -> Import Settings to the MP3 encoder, choose your bit-rate/VBR quality setting. Then with one or more songs selected in the library, pull the menu File -> Convert -> Create MP3 Version.
That functionality has been around for many years. I haven't needed to burn CDs and rip to get an MP3 in ages.
Maybe Swordmaker can enlighten me as to when it first appeared?
I pointed out that I ran iTunes on Windows PCs in the early 2000's before I ran it on Macs. The Windows PCs were not Apple hardware. You were wrong. Also, I moved songs back and forth between my Archos MP3 players and iPods with iTunes. It could be done, if you know how to do it. Former Windows admin here, tinker with multiple platforms.
Say what? Added MP3 conversion recently? Uh, no, dhs, iTunes could create mp3 tracks when it was first released in 2001, seventeen years ago. Just more of your total mis-Information about Apple. What you could NOT legally do in iTunes was save a track in a lossless file system until Steve Jobs forced the music industry to allow it in 2003 or 2004.
SHEESH!