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iTunes Playlist to mp3 USB flash drive

Problem:

- I purchase my music from the iTunes Music Store. The songs are downloaded to my Mac as iTunes Plus AAC files.

- I have a vehicle that supports USB flash drives with MP3 audio files.

I want to convert an iTunes playlist (filled with AAC files) to MP3, and move it to a USB flash drive with Artist > Album > Song file/folder structure in tact. How do I do this?


Lame Researched Solutions:

1. In iTunes, select all the files and Convert to MP3 with import settings set to MP3.

- All iTunes does is convert all the songs to MP3 in place, which means I now have duplicates of every song within the same folder. I am not going to manually go through every folder and move them to a manually created folder structure on a USB stick. Lame.


2. Make a Smart Playlist to find all my MP3s and Burn an MP3 CD.

- iTunes finds all songs not sorted by Artist / Album. Then I need to find a CD-R and burn an MP3 CD (CD-Rs? Seriously? It's 2015 people. Siri knows me better than THAT). Mount the CD and copy all contents to a USB stick. I'm exhausted! Lame.


3. Use an iPod and connect an audio cable to the headphone jack and play music in my car that way.

- Cables. Lame.


I think AppleScript might be the solution. But seriously, why do I need to learn AppleScript to experience the joy of owning Apple products? Lame.


I need an Apple pro. Anyone willing to chime in here?


iTunes 12.1.0.50

OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.2

Posted on Apr 8, 2015 6:14 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Apr 13, 2015 1:01 PM

Macsol wrote:


Problem:

- I purchase my music from the iTunes Music Store.

You got that right. If you purchase your music in MP3 format from Amazon Digital Music or Google Play Music this whole problem goes away.


But given that the mistake has been made, the solution is not so hard. Put the songs you want to convert into a playlist, and convert the whole list to MP3 via this document: iTunes: How to convert a song to a different file format When you are done, sort your Music library by Date Added, and you will see all your newly created MP3s in a row at the top. Hold Shift while you click the first and the last, and then drag them all at once to the flash drive.


Note Added: This is closest in spirit to your #1, but note that you do not have to go thru the folder structure. Just highlight directly in iTunes, then drag-n-drop.

7 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Apr 13, 2015 1:01 PM in response to Macsol

Macsol wrote:


Problem:

- I purchase my music from the iTunes Music Store.

You got that right. If you purchase your music in MP3 format from Amazon Digital Music or Google Play Music this whole problem goes away.


But given that the mistake has been made, the solution is not so hard. Put the songs you want to convert into a playlist, and convert the whole list to MP3 via this document: iTunes: How to convert a song to a different file format When you are done, sort your Music library by Date Added, and you will see all your newly created MP3s in a row at the top. Hold Shift while you click the first and the last, and then drag them all at once to the flash drive.


Note Added: This is closest in spirit to your #1, but note that you do not have to go thru the folder structure. Just highlight directly in iTunes, then drag-n-drop.

Apr 13, 2015 1:00 PM in response to ed2345

ed2345,


Thank you, that helped, but also leaves me with all songs loose on the flash drive, meaning, not in the proper folder structure of Artist > Album > Song Title.


So, not a silver bullet.


I was hoping that dragging from iTunes to the desktop folder (or mounted flash drive) would maintain folder structure, unless I'm doing it wrong.

Apr 13, 2015 6:07 PM in response to Chris CA

Turns out the car stereo will resolve artist, album and song titles with artwork per the metadata associated with the MP3 files if they all reside loose on the root folder of the USB flash drive. So, this resolves my problem.


I did purchase the MPUnify app and tested how my particular car stereo would treat an MPU playlist(s), and it turns out it does not.


So, problem solved. Thanks for all responses.

Feb 12, 2016 2:54 AM in response to Macsol

I have a similar problem - but slightly different. I have a few playlists with different names on itunes. My old car could not play mp3 files, so I burnt each playlist to its own audio CD. Now I want to burn them all to a single CD as mp3 files - but I want each playlist to appear as if they were an album. Is there any way to do this without changing each song's real album to my new fake 'playlist' album (which would of course mess up the original album data)?

iTunes Playlist to mp3 USB flash drive

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