[Ti] Lime Wire

[b]

According to Mark Swanson:

>>Does anyone use LimeWire re: downloading music?  Once it's 
>>downloaded, how do you transfer it to iTunes 3 using OSX (e.g., 
>>10.1.5), so one can listen to it on an iPod, for example?
>
>You can drag the files to the iTunes icon on the dock or you can 
>open iTunes and "Add To Library" (command O) under Edit menu will 
>open a dialog box you use to navigate to your mp3 folder which is 
>your "Limewire Shared" folder.  You can locate the "Limewire Shared" 
>folder under Limewire's preferences.

If you are downloading numerous mp3s from the same artists, or 
albums, you can make things simpler for yourself by setting iTunes 
preferences to move the files into the iTunes Music folder, itself 
[it does so in a very organized fashion] . That being said, the 
easiest, surest way to import the songs is to use the "Add to 
Library" routine in the File menu [ NOT the Edit menu].

To keep the files organized, using the iTunes Music folder, just open 
Preferences under "iTunes' in the menu, select "Advanced" and click 
on the box that says: "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding 
to Library". Then you can delete the originals from the Limewire 
'Shared' folder.

A couple extra 'tips': Select all of the newly-imported songs, once 
they first appear in the iTunes window, go to your 'Advanced' menu 
[not the 'advanced' button in prefs], and select "Convert ID3 Tags". 
This will really help the auto-organizing of the whole situation. I 
use the 'v2.4' setting for the ID3 tags. It is a quick, painless 
process, and when you ever look in the iTunes Music folder, you'll 
see all the songs, divided by Artist, as well as album.

Also, the limewire people are notorious for not formatting the 'tags' 
properly when they upload. So, you'll see files enter iTunes, but all 
the 'info' [artist, title, album, track number] will be under the 
'Title' column. It's annoying, but selecting the batch, if they're 
the same artist, or album, and hitting Command-I will allow you to 
set the album title, and any other info specific to the file group, 
all at the same time, rather than going through them all one-by-one.

Sorry for the lengthy reply, but iTunes is loaded with totally useful 
features, and they don't exactly 'jump out and announce themselves', 
but they are all there.

I use the Usenet news groups to get music. The files there are on 
actual central servers, so, not subject to the vagaries of whether 
someone's computer is 'on' or 'online'. it's like a giant system of 
email servers with each 'mailbox' having a 'limit' of many many 
terrabytes of material.

With a dsl connection 20 songs averaging 6 MB apiece [meaning 
higher-quality sampled mp3 files]can be downloaded and completely 
organized in iTunes, in about 10 minutes, going slowly.  :=)   I 
believe that is far better rate of transfer than is possible with 
Limewire, unless the 'peer' on the other end has a standalone T1 or 
T3 server sitting in the house. Not many do. I can download two songs 
at once, coming down at about 75 Kbs a second, apiece, that's 150 
Kb/sec, compared to a dsl user's 'cap' of around 25 to 30 Kb/sec. 
makes a huge difference...

~flipper