iTunes not smart enough to play MP3 cds?

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iTunes not smart enough to play MP3 cds?

Am I the only one frustrated that iTunes does not have built in support to PLAY an Mp3 disc, but only a normal audio CD? I think it is odd they have the ability to burn one of these discs, but the only solution to play from a MP3 disc is to drag every song into your library.

I burn these discs for my truck, since the stock stereo plays this format. These save on how many albums fit on a single disc. So I have quite a few CD's in my vehicle, and if I want to listen to my CD's at work I have to copy it to my library... which is not practical when using a shared computer. I'm sure others have monitored systems at work, where modifying or adding personal info is discouraged.

All I trying to achieve is to play from an MP3 disc instead of adding to my library. Audio CD's do this, why not an Mp3 disc? It seems ideal to burn a few albums to a CD (or better yet DVD) and be able take your collection on the go for pennies by copying it to a medium which costs pennies.

There are also albums I listen to occassionaly, that I want to have on CD to listen to but not clutter up my iTunes.

Can someone please make a suggestion? Or, lets start a petition for Apple to build this feature into the next iTunes. I mean, if you can burn a disc the same software should be able to read it!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Feb 13, 2007 1:27 PM

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Answer 1

Chris CA

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82,434 points

Feb 13, 2007 2:14 PM in response to VortexOfPain

Works fine here.

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Answer 2

VortexOfPain Author

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Feb 13, 2007 4:49 PM in response to VortexOfPain

I don't see how, you are saying you burned an MP3 formatted disc and able to play FROM the disc instead of adding to your library?

Here is an example, take some songs and burn into a standard audio CD. Now put that disc in, and notice how it shows up on the left, and you can play those songs directly from the disc. Then go to your iTunes preferences, switch to the MP3 format and burn the same CD - and you'll see that the disc does not show up in iTunes. Only the Finder...

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Answer 3

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Feb 13, 2007 7:01 PM in response to VortexOfPain

you are saying you burned an MP3 formatted disc and able to play FROM the disc instead of adding to your library?
Yes.

and you'll see that the disc does not show up in iTunes.
No, I find it shows up in iTunes and the songs play direct from the CD just fine.

Note that this is with iTunes 7.

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Answer 4

Apr 16, 2007 7:08 AM in response to Chris CA

I have the same problem, but only with mp3 cds not made in iTunes. I use Toast for making mp3 cd's, these are usually songs I don't want in my library. It would be nice to play them in iTunes. Did apple make it so iTunes would only play cds with some sort of iTunes formatting?

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Answer 5

rimi

Level 1

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May 27, 2007 6:37 PM in response to Derek Lawrence

Hello,
I was wondering for a long time how to read MP3 CDs on my iTunes too. Stupid me that did not explored deeper.

After reading this post I saw that if you record the MP3 or data CDs/DVDs from iTunes the program will place a special hidden file withing the CD (which is called ContentDB.xml). That is the file that it is needed to let iTunes load the CD for your.

While the CD structure is kind of odd with all the songs numbered in sequece instead of in a tree structure with artist folders it will play well in any computer because when you load it it will use the ID3 Tags to organize you songs.

Thanks for the hints,
Ricardo

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