MusicRescue – Transfer Music from Your iPod to a new PC

If your computer dies and takes your music with it, you still have your iPod, right? However, iTunes only lets you transfer tracks bought from the iTunes Store back to your new/fixed computer. What about those tracks ripped from CD, or lovingly recorded from your vinyl collection? Enter Music Rescue – the answer to your nightmare.

Quote from the MusicRescue web site

Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I think I’m entitled.
Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth.
Col. Jessep: You can’t handle the truth.

 

Here’s the truth:

If you’re assuming that your iPod doubles as a backup device for your music, you’ll be in for an unhappy surprise if your PC does crash. As stated above, music that you’ve put on your iPod that does not originate from the iTunes store cannot be transferred back to a PC with the standard iTunes/iPod software.

For example, you take your favorite Dave Matthews Band CD, Busted Stuff, and copy those songs from the CD to your iTunes software and then to your iPod. These songs didn’t come from the iTunes store so they won’t transfer from your iPod back to your iTunes software in the event of a hard drive meltdown or laptop theft.

Don’t believe me? There are folks on Yahoo Answers looking for a solution to this very problem.

I assume Apple designed it this way to limit the possibility of music piracy (Arrgh, matey!) and ease the concerns of the music industry. I think it’s a bit late for that, but it is what it is.

MusicRescue is a nicely designed piece of software to help you solve this problem. You install onto your iPod and it then allows you to transfer all of your music from your iPod to any PC. MusicRescue calls this their iPod License.

There is also a different type of registration (called the Computer License) that allows you to install MusicRescue onto a PC and then transfer it to as many different iPods as you like. This may be a solution for a family of iPodders who share one PC or one music collection.

The MusicRescue software has both a free and a paid version. The features in both versions are the same. However, the free version “politely” reminds you that you should pay for the software while you’re copying music.

I haven’t tried the free version, so I don’t know if the “polite” reminder pauses the copying process and requires your presence to click OK. I suspect that it does, which means that you may find yourself glued to your PC clicking an OK button for however long it takes to transfer the music.

Keep this product in mind in case you find yourself in this type of situation. It works well on a Windows PC or a Mac.

You may download the software from MusicRescue web site by clicking here..