Tutorial - Exporting to iTunes

Peter 5Apr11: I moved the Apple/iTunes specific information to the Talk page (for retention - just in case we want to reinstate it) - as I agree with Bill that users should be looking to Apple for such information and help.

• Gale 5 Apr 11: The tutorial says "to... iPod". You can link to http://wiki.audacityteam.org/w/index.php?title=Exporting_your_Audacity_Project_into_iTunes_and_iPod#sync if you like. I've spent five minutes trying to figure what this current page is. It doesn't seem to be a tutorial but rather linked indirectly from part of http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Tutorial_-_Copying_tapes,_LPs_or_minidiscs_to_CD. Why not link to it explicitly on that page, and work "Sample workflow for exporting to iTunes" into it? Then see what it looks like. I think it should have at least a link about syncing to iPod because people ask this frequently on [email protected] Or if there was enough iPod information on this page, we could get rid of the Wiki tutorial after 2.0.
• Peter 7Apr14: Working on the wiki pre-split caused me to take a further look at this page. As Gale suggested three years ago I moved relevant material over from the Wiki (in order that the Wiki page can be deprecated in the Non-legacy Wiki after the split. I also discovered that this was an "almost orphan" page with only a single, well hidden, link to it. So I turned it into a tutorial and added it to the Tutorials page and the Tutorials section of the front page. I removed the "and iPod" from the title as we certainly don't export to iPods (that's Apples's realm) in fact we don't even technically export "to" iTunes we export "for" iTunes usage.

Before exporting audio for use in iTunes it is important to consider which audio file format you want to use. WAV and AIFF files produce high quality lossless audio files but consume a lot of disk space. MP3 and AAC files are compressed so they occupy less disk space, but audio damage may result as a result of the compression.

Exporting audio for loading into iTunes

In order to export audio for adding into iTunes:

1. use the File > Export Audio... command or in Audacity (or File > Export Multiple...),
2. choose the export format in the Export dialog, to export the particular format you want your file(s) to be in (for example WAV, AIFF, MP3, AAC or OGG),
3. move the file(s) into iTunes from the location you exported it to, using the iTunes File > Add File to Library... (or File > Add Folder to Library...) command.

You may also want to read this workflow tutorial Sample workflow for exporting to iTunes.

What format should I export to?

WAV or AIFF (universal support, lossless, best for CD burning)

If you want a perfect lossless copy of your audio, or to burn it in iTunes to an audio CD for playing on any CD player, you should choose WAV or AIFF. It is strongly recommended you export a standard "CD quality" 44100 Hz, 16 bit stereo WAV or AIFF to make sure iTunes understands the file. This means:

1. Ensure your Project Rate at the bottom left of the Audacity project window is set to "44100" Hz.
2. Select File > Export Audio... (or File > Export Multiple...) then select "WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM" or "AIFF (Apple) signed 16-bit PCM" in the export window
   • If you want a stereo export but your Project does not already contain a stereo track, click Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track.

Jump to here if you're only interested in burning a CD.

An advantage of exporting to AIFF is that lyrics or album art can be added to the file in iTunes, which is not possible with WAV files.

MP3 (universal support, small files, lossy)

If you want to distribute your files on the internet (for example as a podcast), you should choose MP3 as the Format in the Export dialog, as this is a space-saving (although slightly lossy) format that anyone should be able to play. To export as MP3 from Audacity you need first to download the LAME encoder and point Audacity to it (see Lame Installation).

If you want to put the files on iPod, or simply store them in iTunes in a compact form, MP3 is also a good choice. However, there are some reports that when run on battery, recent iPods can struggle or crash when playing MP3s created in applications other than iTunes. So you may want to export as WAV or AIFF from Audacity and convert the files to MP3 in iTunes instead. To do this, you set the conversion format in iTunes Preferences > General > Import Settings... and set "Import Using" to "MP3 Encoder" . Then you can right-click or control-click over the WAV or AIFF files in iTunes Library and create an MP3 version.

AAC (Apple proprietary format, lossy and lossless variants)

Apple's own size-compressed AAC format is also a good format for iPod or storage in iTunes. Generally, AAC files will give you the same quality as MP3 for a slightly smaller file size. Audacity can export to AAC if you add the optional FFmpeg library to your computer, but you can also export to WAV or AIFF and convert to AAC in iTunes. To do this, in iTunes go to Edit > Preferences > General > Import Settings... and set "Import Using" to "AAC Encoder". Finally, right-click or control-click over the files in iTunes Library to create an AAC version. AAC files usually have M4A extension, with variants such as M4P (protected) and M4R (ringtones).

You can also choose "Apple Lossless Encoder" in "Import Using". This is a lossless format of the same quality as the WAV or AIFF you exported from Audacity, but about half the size (though still much larger than MP3 or AAC).

After creating the MP3, AAC or Apple Lossless version you will probably want to delete the original WAV or AIFF files to save disk space.

OGG format (open source, small files, lossy)

Audacity supports the Ogg Vorbis format (a lossy compressed format similar to MP3/compressed AAC, but of higher quality for the same file size than either). An iPod cannot play OGG files, but iTunes can with a hack. To play .OGG Files in iTunes or Quick Time , install the OGG codecs for QuickTime. Alternatively you can download and install Oggdrop which as well as allowing you to play OGG files in iTunes or Quick Time functions as a standalone application allowing you to encode CD tracks or audio files in other formats to OGG.

There are several advantages to using a compressed format on iPods. The two main benefits are that you can fit many more songs into the device (for 256 kbps files you can fit about 10 times as many songs), and compressed files improve battery life (because disk reads are relatively heavy on battery power).

Export Location

You can choose any location for the export you like such as a "Music" folder on your Desktop or even the iTunes "Music" folder if you have one. However you must still import this file from the exported location into the iTunes Library (which makes it visible when you view Library > Music on the left hand panel of iTunes). There are two ways to import your exported audio files into iTunes.

• Use the File > Add File to Library... or File > Add Folder to Library... command from within iTunes, to add a single audio file or a folder of audio files.
• Select Library > Music in iTunes and drag the file from the location you exported it to, into the iTunes window. If you just want to burn the files to CD, it's best to drag them directly into an iTunes Playlist in the left-hand panel. See the section below on burning to CD.

By default iTunes is a "virtual" Library containing no actual files but only links to them. To avoid losing your files, do *not* delete the exported files from the location you exported them to, unless you have already gone to Preferences > Advanced in iTunes and enabled "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library".

Burning to CD in iTunes

The files also have to be in an iTunes Playlist before they can be burnt to CD.

Simply

1. Drag them from the iTunes Library window into the playlist you want in the left hand panel.
2. Then right-click on the playlist in the left hand panel and click on the "Burn Playlist to Disc" in the iTunes drop-down menu.
3. Select the burner speed, the gap between songs if you are burning multiple files onto the CD.
4. Most importantly make sure "Audio CD" is selected. Unless you choose Audio CD, the CD won't play on most CD players.

For more general help on burning to CD, see Burning music files to a CD

Sample workflow for exporting to iTunes

See also this tutorial with a sample workflow giving a set of example steps that can be used to get Audacity Projects (LP and tape transcriptions for example) into iTunes.

Submitting a podcast to iTunes is a different process than exporting an Audacity file to iTunes; two broad steps are required:

1. upload your podcast file and an RSS feed to an online file server.
2. submit the feed to the iTunes Store.

See our Tutorial on Tutorial - Mixing a Narration With Background Music for more help with creating a podcast.