Napster .WMA to .MP3
As most people have found, converting WMA’s to MP3′s can be a very long and gruesome process. I wrote a program last night that watches Napster’s downloading directory and when a new file is created it calls a conversion program that has a command line interface. On a fast enough computer this process take just a little bit longer than downloading the WMA’s and it is totally automated. Last night I got a little over 1.5 GB of music downloaded and converted. Now I can toss it into iTunes then on my iPod or iPod Shuffle!
(UPDATE (04/12/05) : I will be creating a version of this automation tool that others can use shortly. Currently the code is hardcoded to folders on my PC. Keep a lookout for something you can download within the next day or so.
(UPDATE (04/12/05): Ok so here are some basic instructions, work fast because Napster has been known to close out these “holes”.
1. http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips858.html < -Instructions on getting the conversion software.
2. Once you have the software you are going to want to either buy the full version or crack it. Make sure to test the conversion software on a file or two before moving on to step 3.
3. Download http://www.smallegan.com/blog/downloads/thewatcher/thewatcher.zip (The .NET framework is required)
4. Start up Napster
5. Start up TheWatcher …….(Pre-Alpha version so be nice hehe)
6. When you start up the watcher it will prompt you for a download folder, this is the folder in which your Napster files get downloaded into. (The default is MyDocuments/MyMusic)
7.Next it will prompt you to select the decoder program and it should default to proper directory, but in case you decided to install it elsewhere, located and select the mp3towave.exe file.
8. You should see a crappy blank looking screen with the two choices that you just made on it.
9. Switch to Napster and Download a song.
10. If all was done correctly you should see the conversion tool pop up as soon as the song has completed. (It will download the songs into the default directory for the conversion tool. Which you can change there)
11. Give yourself a pat on the back and go fill up that iPod!
Now the cool part about this is that you can just start downloading away and it will try to keep up with the converting. My broadband connection was too fast for my laptop to keep up so the queue of songs waiting to be converted just continued to grow until I stopped downloading.
Have fun and please comment below and let me know how this works for everyone. I am planning on modifying this program a bit to make it a bit more user friendly.
How can I get this program? Thanks! Phil
I would love to get this program as well!! Thanks a bunch!!!
Like they said, where can we get this from???
you are big sexy nerd…
I concur you are a big sexy nerd
don’t know the program yet
Add me to the list of leechers. All other methods have been thwarted (Vituosity was the best…).
Peace
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i’m getting a 404 when i try to download The Watcher…
The link should be working now. Sorry about that!
Hmm… sounds interesting. Before I sign up with Napster, can you clarify somethings?
1. I thought Napster uses some WMA DRM and the only way to convert it to mp3 was to go DRM->WAV->MP3 which takes a long time. Are you saying that app basically converts directly from DRM->MP3?
2. Does it write the ID3 tags in the mp3 files?
1.37 GB and counting! Thanks Ryan!
Smoothie: 1) Yes. 2) Yes, with the exception of the track number (which for some reason is “65535″ for everything I’ve gotten from Napster. . . which I can live with given the sheer volumn of music I’m adding to my collection).
Awesome Matt, isn’t it nice to be able to use the music you pay for in the ways you like. I for one have had Napster for quite a few months and I will continue to keep my account. Being able to add music to my iPod is essential though.
BTW, what are the specs of the machine you are running?
My downloads aren’t queue-ing in the converter. I’m using a Windows 2000 box for the task. They are converting fine, I just have to do it manually. After I launch Napster and TheWatcher the first download will convert, but all subsequent downloads just sit. Any ideas? I’m thinking it has something to do with the directory structure beign maintained…i.e. creating Artist folders with Album folders contained within.
I am not quite sure what your problem might be, when I get near a windows 2000 box I will test it out and let you know.
Thanks Ryan. Either way, it’s still nice to be able to put Napster music on an iPod.
Rock on.
Just stumbled onto this site right now, and it made my day. I had napster for a while, and i still have my music, but i no longer have napster. Can I just convert what I have already downloaded, or do I have to subscribe to napster again? please email me at epd648@Hotmail.com if anyone can help me with this.
works great. hopefully napster doesn’t shut this down soon. i was using tunebite before, which i had to record each song in real time. it was a pain, and also, the track records at exactly the same volume it’s at when it’s recording. i.e. my mp3′s were all of crappy quality (32kps) because i turned my volume down while recording.
this is a great solution. thanks a million
This would be great software in theory. I would love to get this software to work, who wouldn’t? Unfortunately I am having trouble in the conversion process. I get the message “may have anti-copy Digital Rights Management (DRM) system embedded in it and, thus, cannot be converted.†In an Acoustica dialog box. Help would be greatly appreciated.
It appears that Napster has gone a step ahead again and the conversion software no longer works.
OMFG – unbelievable!!!!
You Rock
your” watcher software” isnt working. im getting an error… it failed to initilaize properly
i really loved your site and found it to be very friendly and helpfull.
Hello, I’m Googlebot
There are a lot of converters now and I like TuneCab, it has many features such as audio conversion, video conversion, extract sound from video, remove DRM, download and convert video from YouTube etc. Easy to use all in one software! http://www.tunecab.com