Why only 22 MP3 tunes on an audio CD?

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Level 1

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Why only 22 MP3 tunes on an audio CD?

I have iTunes ver 12110.26.53016.0. About a year ago I successfully burnt 120 MP3 songs (5h 51m) onto a 700 MB audio CD, selecting "Audio CD" as the disc format during the burning process. I tried to repeat this just now with 123 MP3 songs, but a popup indicated there are too many songs on the playlist and multiple CDs will be required. I started deleting songs from the playlist and am down to 97 (4h 54m) but get the same message. I did a test burn and only got 22 of the 97 songs onto the CD. What is going on?

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Posted on Feb 28, 2021 12:56 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

272,767 points

Feb 28, 2021 3:38 AM in response to Promerops

CD-R is a once-write recordable medium. iTunes can burn to CD-R in three formats, Audio CD, MP3 CD, and Data CD. Many modern CD players are able to play MP3 CD (MP3s only) or Data CD (a mix of audio formats) but if your car does not then you are limited to Audio CD. If the previous MP3/Data CD that you made worked in the car then I would use that format again. Use Data CD unless you're certain that all tracks are in MP3 format and/or that your player copes with MP3 CD but not Data CD.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

272,767 points

Feb 28, 2021 2:03 AM in response to Promerops

Promerops wrote:

I have iTunes ver 12110.26.53016.0. About a year ago I successfully burnt 120 MP3 songs (5h 51m) onto a 700 MB audio CD, selecting "Audio CD" as the disc format during the burning process.

Your recollection is faulty. You will have burnt to a data disc or MP3 CD. An Audio CD holds at most 80 minutes of uncompressed audio. When burning data you get to use up to 700MiB filling it with compressed files that may represent much more than 80 minutes of audio when decompressed.

tt2

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Answer 3

Promerops Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 28, 2021 2:52 AM in response to turingtest2

Many thanks tt2. It wasn't an MP3 CD as my car CD player does not play them. The blank CD I used was a standard Verbatim CD-R disc. I'm tech-challenged in this field - is a CD-R disc essentially a data disc? Should I therefore select Data CD in the disc format options when burning?

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Answer 4

Promerops Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 28, 2021 8:14 AM in response to turingtest2

You were dead right and my three-score-years-and-ten+ memory was dead wrong. My car does indeed play MP3s, and I now have a CD with 6 hours of songs on. Many thanks for your help!

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,767 points

Feb 28, 2021 8:35 AM in response to Promerops

You're most welcome. 🙂

tt2

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Why only 22 MP3 tunes on an audio CD?

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