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• I purchased songs legally from BigPond Music; why won't they play on my iPod?

I purchased songs legally from BigPond Music; why won't they play on my iPod?

By Ella Morton on 26 February 2007

Topics: aac, ipod, itunes, mp3, music, wma, online music, bigpond, song, stores

• Australian music download services compared

• Is this music download service a scam?

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  THESTEPHDOG commented on 11/04/2009 15:03 Report abuse

  I had the same problem - it wouldn't even play on my computer, and the bigpond site is so slow. If you want to convert those files go onto www.mediaconverter.org - you can convert them to MP3!

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  max_wedge commented on 03/01/2009 19:46 Report abuse

  Bigpond now have 320Kbps drm-free MP3's available for a much larger range of their music than the iTunes Plus equivalednt (256Kbps AAC drm-free). And higher bitrate. At the same price. If you have to burn itunes tracks to CD first to rip portable MP3's, there is an inevitable loss in quality from the already low bitrate of 128Kbps Though I hate to say it, Bigpond are the first provider to offer competitively priced drm-free high bitrate tracks (atleast in Australia). I started buying itunes, but got sick of all the tracks I really wanted only being available in 128Kbps protected versions meaning I was limited to the poor quality (especially after burning and ripping). Bigpond drm-free offering is far superior to itunes in content and feature.

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  Jonuta Werns commented on 18/07/2008 21:59 Report abuse

  I had a problem playing bigpond sourced songs on my iriver. To solve this I put the tracks onto an audio cd then copied them back on to my computer. Transfering them onto my iriver after this resulted in playable music.

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  crow commented on 16/05/2007 18:58 Report abuse

  It seems that the pay for downloads of "legal" music is a bit of a scam. I am new to this and its seems its going to work out a bit expensive. We lived in a small country town we have no music store, so I thought I would get my own of the net. I am quite happy to do it "legally' and pay for it. But on going to the local PO to buy itunes credit, then trying to find the place to enter the code so I could download the music wasn't quite so easy, all I could find was the place to put in your credit card details. It was the only way I could see to do it. So I did manage download 4 songs, which I suspect was on the credit card and not on my PO credit slip, of which I had already given my hard cash to. Then I find I can't use the songs on my portable player. Which is obviously not an ipod. I feel when you pay for something you should then have the choice of where you can listen to it.

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  Peter commented on 20/03/2007 19:32 Report abuse

  I recently downloaded a song off Bigpond music. I paid for it and thought I was doing the right thing. But sadly it didn't turn out to be all beer and skittles. In the last couple of weeks I bought a new computer and transferred all my music files across to it, the bigpond file refused to play and low and behold despite the fact that I payed for it, it can only be used on the one computer. If you put it on a CD you get clicks through the song, and also with putting it on an MP3 Player. That was the last time I will ever download from Bigpond music. They are righteous in their ideals for maintaining the integrity of the music industry, but as always anything associated with Telstra lacks the fundamentals of customer service and satisfaction.

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  Flash commented on 13/03/2007 19:16 Report abuse

  I agree with Jake. Companies that are aligned with Microsoft get a bit "anal" about iPod dominance of the player market and miss the point. The public will use the PC player and portable they want to use. Trying to control the copies made after the first sale is near on impossible. If you are interested read Steve Jobs short paper on the subject. at http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

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  Jake Heke commented on 09/03/2007 12:24 Report abuse

  if you use itunes, you can burn an audio cd which will play in any cd player or be ripped into unprotected files for use anywhere, thus ensuring total compatibility with everything, while also protecting music companies basic drm interests. If bigpond, or any player uses only wma, and if it can't be changed into mp3's, then why use a 'locked' system that cant do what itunes can ? You'll only be choosing to give yourself a headache, especially if you're misinformed and believe Apple is no different from other companies.

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  max_wedge commented on 02/03/2007 10:20 Report abuse

  so in other words, bigpond music is no different in principle to the itunes store downloads, which only play on ipod. Actually, atleast you have some sort of choice of player with bigpond, since a number of manufacturers make wma compatible players, but only Apple make itunes store compatible players. Them's the breaks - buy a cd and rip it your self if you want portability.