I repaved our home machine, and I'm struggling to get iTunes back to it's old self. Here are a few reminders on how to configure stuff.

Export purchased songs as MP3
The "export" menu option (select a particular song, then context menu or Advanced menu) is by default "Create AAC version". This is still DRM'd. To change that to MP3, have to adjust "import settings" (stupid that they're related).

Edit, Preferences, General, "When you insert a CD" = "Ask to import CD".
Import Settings, choose MP3 Encoder, and bit rate quality (I do 192 kbps).

Now the "Create ... Version" should say MP3 instead.

Rebuild "Purchased Music" playlist
According to their installed help, it will get rebuilt the next time you purchase music. (lame!)

To see history of purchases, go to your store account, and choose purchase history. This is just an online list of purchases and their music.

Still to figure out:

• How to change the default folder structure of music. I loathe the Album name folder in the structure (just want flat list of music for an artist), but can't find any customization in iTunes.

My Process
After purchasing a song from iTunes, I want it as an MP3, ready to use from the Zune side.

1. purchase song, now it's an m4a in the lame iTunesMedia folder structure
2. find it in iTunes, right click, Create MP3 version (now it's in the same directory as the original)
3. right click the MP3 version, "show in windows explorer"
4. windows explorer, CUT from this spot and put it in the main MP3 directory structure (that zune watches)

Since iTunes is watching the MP3 (non iTunes) directory structure, it *SHOULD* eventually wake up and find those MP3s and show them in addition to the DRM'd crap. Haven't seen this happen yet...

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