preparing mp3s for IPODs

[technomonster]

well I am just about to release a track of EDM.

I am even going to sell the track on-line via my website.
Paypal will be used to handle credit card transactions.

I do not own an IPOD, and am wondering if there are any things i need to know when preparing mp3's for an iPOD.

I dont want to give my music directly to iTUNES as I believe that they sometimes re-master your music. aND i CAN control the mp3 quality here.

Firstly do non iTUNES mp3s' play on IPODS.

I s it as simple as just transfering mp3s from a hard drive to an IPOD, or does onw need to go through the iTUNES PROGRAM.

[cafe_civet]

iTunes sells songs in the AAC format, not MP3, so they would definitely convert it. That being said, an iPod can play any MP3. Make sure that you choose a high enough quality, I won't load anything under 160kbps (but higher is better).

If you enable disk mode on an iPod, then the user can transfer directly from an external drive. However, most people are going to load the file into their music jukebox software (likely iTunes) and then onto the iPod. It's just far easier to manage this way. The song won't be resampled if imported into iTunes because it's just a reference to the MP3 file.