itunes and zune; oil and water

This is a warning for anyone who is also trying to accomplish what is a miserable chore, converting your itunes playlists for use on your zune. It simply can't be done effectively, at least if you're an obsessive audiophile like I am.

Why do this? Itunes has a much more navigable interface than Zune's program, especially for making playlists. But in order to move these over to the Zune device, you need a separate program.

If you are happy with mp3 quality, iTunesExportUI is a useful tool that works to convert itunes playlists into .zpl format.
...But then theres flac. Flac is the ugly duckling zombiechild of the music world; it's the most reputable lossless audio format, but no one from producers to distrubutors seem to want to touch it, including any support from itunes and zune. Using dBPoweramp you can convert flac into .wav or .wma, which are equally good lossless formats. The problem is that while wav is supported by itunes but not zune, wma is supported by zune but not itunes. Therefore, conversion b/w the two is impossible. If you've noticed, yes, Microsoft's device not being capable of supporting Microsoft's own audio format is shockingly stupid.
The only way to get a lossless format onto the Zune is thus to use .wma, and also to make playlists in Zune. So you might want to consider making the switch completely from itunes to zune, at least after you convert your playlists.

Outside the darkness blinds like burning
these Travelers are drawn to it with tourist like yearning
blank faces holding quiet discerning

A soldier stationed at an army base
he looks in the mirror but
can't recognize his own face.
Disillusioned now
He holds his rifle as a mother would
permanently attached to it if he could.

He looks up to be inspired by the patriot bald eagle.
It defecates on his face
it is only a seagull.


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Listening to: Duke Ellington - city_music_01
via FoxyTunes