how to convert and replace itunes m4a playlist with mp3 playlist

Thanks for your reply. I know how to convert, which I can do for the playlist en masse. The problem is that the converted files do not appear in the original playlist, they just show up in the library - so I have to hunt them down to put them in a playlist - that's cumbersome for 200 songs. If I could make the conversions appear in a playlist, that would solve the problem. My goal is for the conversions to end up in a playlist, and then to be able to delete the old files.

I still don't know why my imported files don't appear as mp3 since I changed the import preference to mp3.

Thanks.

Hi, and thanks again for your input. I will do whatever works. Conversion works fine to convert, but then I have to hunt down each of the 200 newly converted songs to recreate the playlist of mp3s, and then hunt down each of the old files in the library to delete them.

So I tried to figure out another way to do it. It occured to me that if I exported the songs and then re-imported them, then they would be imported as mp3s due to the preference setting in Itunes, but I can't make that happen (they come back in as m4a). If I could, I thought I could just import (drag them in) to a new playlist and then I could delete the old playlist - allthough the problem then would be that the old playlist songs would still be in the library, but I think I read where I could do something like option delete (from within the old playlist) to actually remove the files from the library. Then I wouldn't have to hunt for the old songs.

My ignorance is due to my not using the proper terminology. I just saw the suffix is mp3 so I figured people would know what I meant. Same for m4a which probably also has a more correct term than that.

Thanks for the reference to Doug's scripts - there's a lot of them there. If I can find a way to contact Doug, I will ask him if he has a script that will do it.

Hey, this sounds like it could work. Do you have a trick for deleting the m4a playlist (the old songs) from the library? Is there a way to delete the song from the libray from within the playlist? If so, I think you've told me how to accomplish my goal as that would keep me from having to find each of the 200 songs in the library.

By the way, if dragging a file into Itunes will not convert it, is there a way to import a song so that it will convert and directly into a playlist?

Thanks again.

Limnos, you are amazing. Thanks so much for helping me with this. It all worked just as you described.

However, I ran into a related issue I didn't anticipate. Since I'm converting my playlist to mp3 so that I can burn a CD with lots of songs, I want to burn the CD with the songs shuffled. I haven't been able to find a way to do this that worked for me. I tried selecting different fields and sorting on them but a bunch of songs my the same artist/album/name always end up lumped together. Do you know any tricks for shuffling the playlist so that I can burn a CD with the shuffled order retained? Thanks again.

Hello Limnos, thanks again for your response. I had sorted by track number which works well except for those with no track number, so all those by the same artist get lumped together. However, I see where I can add track numbers if I choose to do the work. Not sure what you meant by "then right click and copy to play order". If I R-click and copy, nothing happens (I suppose it just makes a copy I can past somewhere, but what do I do with that?).

But, and this is the big but, according to the link you gave me, the mp3 cd is not going to play in the order of the playlist anyway: "Most CD players that can play MP3 CDs play songs in alphabetical order. This means that the play order is according to song title, and not according to the track order on an Audio CD, or the song order in your iTunes playlists." If this is true, I don't see the point in trying to simulate a shuffle of the playlist when the mp3 cd isn't going to play back in the playlist order anyway.

As usual, any more of your wisdom is greatly appreciated.

OK, I now see how to "copy to play order". I guess I hadn't reordered first so that option did not appear. So the question is, once I've invoked the "copy to play order" option, will the playlist burn to an mp3 cd in the order in which the playlist is displayed in itunes, or will it still burn/play back in alphabetical order once the CD is burned as indicated in the link you gave me? Thanks again.

Thanks Limnos, I'm ready to give it a whirl. Does it have an 8-track?!