Secrets of the iPod and iTunes (Fifth Edition) [Electronic resources]

The Hidden Revealed: Song Storage on the iPod

If you mount your iPod as an external storage device and double-click its icon, you''ll be surprised to find that it contains just a few folders: Contacts, Calendars, and (if you have a third- or fourth-generation iPod, iPod Photo, or iPod mini) Notes. You know that the iPod contains your entire library of Bill Frisell CDs, yet they''re nowhere in sight. Has Apple created a stealth partition that stores only song data? Do the songs sit in some kind of temporary storage buffer and disappear when the battery drains? Is the iPod really some remarkable wireless receiving device that plays songs beamed from Apple''s super-secret orbiting satellite?

No, no, and no.

Apple has done no more than create a scheme whereby the iPod''s music files are placed in an invisible folder. Those music files sit right alongside the Contacts, Calendars, and Notes folders; you just can''t see them.

Why would Apple do such a thing? Simple: to make it harder to copy files from your iPod to a Macintosh or PC.

And why would Apple want to discourage such a procedure? Because Apple doesn''t want the iPod to facilitate the practice of sharing music illegally. Leaving these files out in the open could tempt people who would not otherwise pirate music, and it might leave Apple open to criticism (and lawsuits) from the stodgier elements of the entertainment industry.

If this is the case, why didn''t Apple come up with some impossible-to-crack encryption system, rather than this invisibility scheme? I''ll let Apple''s CEO, Steve Jobs, answer that one:

"Piracy is not a technological issue. It''s a behavior issue."

If I may be so bold as to interpret Mr. Jobs'' words, I believe he''s saying that no matter how secure the knot you tie is, someone will come along and untie it. And he''s correct. Countless bright individuals take it as a personal challenge to outwit any copy-protection scheme that comes along. Those who are bent on piracy will always find a way to defeat any copy-protection scheme they encounter. And because copy-protection schemes will be defeated, companies that embrace copy protection risk creating an expensive and time-consuming cycle of devising protection schemes, waiting for them to be broken, devising new protection schemes, waiting for them to be broken, and on, and on, and on.

Apple decided that it didn''t care to jump aboard this merry-go-round. Parties that have a greater stake in the game (the recording industry, for example) can spend their time and money on copy-protection schemes and Washington lobbyists. Apple was content to make sharing files difficult enough to discourage casual pirates and to include the words " Don''t steal music" in iPod packaging and advertisements. Beyond that, it''s up to the individual user to decide whether it''s morally responsible to enjoy the work of others without paying for it.

Which brings us, of course, to this question:

Music Sharing: Right or Wrong?

Excuse the rampant editorializing, but here are the issues surrounding music sharing as I see them. Feel free to agree or disagree, as the mood strikes you.

Taking music that the owner would like you to pay forwhether by copying it from an iPod, duplicating someone''s audio CD, or downloading the music from an illegal source on the Internetis wrong. If you intend to keep the music, you should pay for it. Someone (or a group of someones) created that music with the intention of being rewarded for that toil in ways other than your undying admiration. If you respect an artist''s work, you should also respect the artist''s desire to be paid for that work.

Music that''s intended to be sharedsuch as live concert performances, when the artists care not a whit whether you swap recordings with your friendsis a different matter.

As a professional musician, I''m well aware that musicians have been sorely abused by the recording industry. Your mother was correct, however, when she suggested that two wrongs don''t make a right. Striking back at the recording industry by denying artists their paltry royalties is no way to punish record executives. If you''re concerned about the rights of recording artists, visit the Recording Artists Coalition Web site ([www.recordingartistscoalition.com]), and lobby your elected officials to enact legislation that protects artists'' rights.

As a consumer, I believe that it''s my right to play music I own on any compatible device I own, as long as it''s for my personal enjoyment. Currently, the law agrees. That means that if I have one iPod, four Macs, two PCs, one car stereo, two home stereos, a boom box, and a portable CD player, I may make copies of that music for each and every device I own and, if I feel so inclined, play that same recording on every one of these devices at the same time.

By creating the iTunes Music Store, Apple agrees that I''m also allowed to play purchased musicin its raw formon up to five computers. Given that I can easily burn purchased music to CD-R and play it on any CD player I like (including the CD drive in any of my computers), I can live with this very minor limitation.

Because I believe in the rights of both musicians and consumers, I will now reveal how to move the music you legally own from your iPod to any computer you also own. Music that you don''t own shouldn''t be on your iPod in the first place; neither should you take the music you own and dump it on your best friend''s computer. Piracy is, indeed, a behavior issue. So please watch your behavior.

Moving Music

The iPod stores music in an invisible folder called iPod_Control. This folder is located at the root level of your iPod''s hard drive. If you''re a do-it-yourselfer, you can make this folder and its contents visible and then drag the files from the iPod to your computer''s hard drive. Alternatively, a variety of utilities for the Mac and PC give you access to this invisible folder and its contents. I''ll show you both the manual and assisted methods in the following sections.

Chapter 4.

The manual method (Mac OS 9)

Download a utility that''s capable of turning invisible files visible. For this example, I''ll use Daniel Azuma''s $10 FileTyper ([http://dazuma.freeshell.org/filetyper]), though a host of other utilities, including Apple''s ResEdit, can do the job (Figure 6.8).

Then follow these steps:

1. While you''re running Mac OS 9, launch FileTyper.

2. Choose Open from the File menu.

3. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the mounted iPod, and click Open.

4. Locate the iPod_Control folder, and click Select.

Two windows will appear: one marked Folder Attribute Editor, and one marked File Attribute Editor.

5. If the Folder Attribute Editor is not active, click it.

The entry in the first field in this window should read Device.

6. Click the Cancel button.

Now the first field should read iPod_Control (Figure 6.9).

7. In this window, uncheck the check box titled isInvisible.

8. Click the Change All button.

9. When you''re asked to confirm that you really want to do this, click OK.

The Folder Attributes Editor window disappears, leaving the File Attributes Editor window open. This window has the word Preferences in the first field.

10. Click the Cancel All button.

11. Quit FileTyper.

12. Double-click the iPod''s icon on the Desktop to open the iPod''s hard drive.

Inside, you''ll see that the iPod_Control folder is visible (Figure 6.10). Inside this folder are two folders: iTunes and Music. The Music folder contains all your music files inside folders that begin with the letter FF00, F01, F02, and F03, for example.

13. Use Sherlock to seek the songs you want to copy to your Mac.

14. To copy the songs, just open the appropriate folder and drag the files to your Mac''s hard drive.

The manual method (Mac OS X)

The process is even simpler in Mac OS X. Here''s how:

1. Mount your iPod on the Desktop.

2. Download and install a copy of Marcel Bresink''s free TinkerTool ([www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerToo77]).

3. Launch TinkerTool.

4. In the Finder Options section of the Finder tab, check the Show Hidden and System Files check box (Figure 6.11).

5. Click the Relaunch Finder button at the bottom of the dialog.

6. Move back to the Desktop, and double-click your iPod to open its hard drive.

Inside, you''ll see that the iPod_Control folder is visible.

7. Open this folder and then the Music folder within it.

Inside this folder, you''ll find your music files inside folders that begin with the letter FF00, F01, F02, and F03, for example (Figure 6.12).

8. Use Mac OS X''s Find feature to seek the songs you want to copy to your Mac.

9. To copy the songs, just open the appropriate folder and drag the files to your Mac''s hard drive.

The manual method (Windows XP)

Revealing the iPod''s hidden song files is child''s play under Windows XP. Here''s how:

1. Mount your iPod on your PC.

2. Open the My Computer window, and double-click the iPod.

3. Choose Folder Options from the Tools menu to open the Folder Options dialog.

4. Click the View tab.

5. Below the Hidden Files and Folders entry, click Show Hidden Files and Folders (Figure 6.13).

6. Click Apply.

The iPod_Control folder is visible.

7. Open this folder and then the Music folder within it.

Inside this folder, you''ll find your music files inside folders that begin with the letter FF00, F01, F02, and F03, for example (Figure 6.14).

8. Click the Search button in the window''s toolbar, and search your iPod for specific songs to copy to your PC''s hard drive.

9. To copy the songs, just open the appropriate folder and drag the files to your PC''s hard drive.

The assisted methods

Go to VersionTracker ([www.versiontracker.com]), and enter iPod in the Search field. You''ll turn up a fair number of utilities that can assist you with moving music files from your iPod onto your computer''s hard drive. Here are some of my favorites.

Senuti (Mac OS X)

[http://wbyoung.ambitiouslemon.com/senuti]

Whitney Young''s free Senuti offers a straightforward interface for moving music off your iPod. Like similar utilities, it allows you to select songs on the iPod and then copy them to a location of your choosing. Unlike with other utilities, you can copy not only single songs and songs grouped by artist and album, but also complete playlists from the iPod (Figure 6.15).

This solves a tricky problem that has plagued some iTunes users. Suppose that you lost your computer''s entire iTunes library. You could recover your songs from the iPod, but how would you recreate your carefully wrought playlists? Now, as long as those playlists were copied to the iPod, you can recreate them by copying a playlist at a time from the iPod, creating a new playlist in iTunes, and adding the songs copied from the iPod''s playlist to the playlist you created in iTunes.

PodManager (Mac OS X)

[http://podmanager.brunoblondeau.com]

Bruno Blondeau''s $8 PodManager couldn''t be simpler. Plug in your iPod, launch PodManager, select the songs you want to copy from your iPod to your Mac, and click the Copy Selected Songs on Disk button (Figure 6.16). PodManager does as you request, copying music from the iPod to a folder you designate.