I purchased ( YES PURCHASED ) a couple of mp3s from napster - and when I tried to play them in my ipod - it starts converting them to acc format...is this normal??

I also had a couple of questions...
1. What is the best way to arrange mp3s? I have a bunch of mp3s that are just in one folder...I want a software that can help me arrange them - and is easy to use...

2. Is there a software that would allow me to just choose a directory and then download the albumwork automatically?

3. Is the WMA 192kbps near cd quality???..

4. How is the format of mp3s downloaded from napster differnent from itunes..is one necessarily better than another??

5. Am I allowed to convert the purchased music ( from napster) into audio cd so that I can play it in my car...??

I apologize if the questions posted here are obvious/stupid.....I am reallly new at this...
thanks guys..

I'll only offer a suggestion regarding cataloging your files-take a look at Media Monkey. There is a fully functional FREE version that is very good at doing exactly what you want to do. If you pay for it, the bonus features are worth the cost. You can also check out their forum for help configuring it and for plug-in and other goodies.

Several of your other questions deal with possible licensing/legal concerns and you need to read your agreement with Napster. The higher the bitrate-the higher the quality of the file content.

right...but does the bitrate of one format correspond to the format of another??
ALSO - am I loosing quality while I convert all these files to acc?

You can have issues trying to reconvert. However, the typical ear will not usually notice it. As far as archiving material-the higher the bitrate the better since you can reduce it for portable playback later.

what I meant was - where do people usually save the purchased music??...the reason for concern is that some people were saying that the usual lifespan of a burned dvd is about 3-5 yrs...

I'm not quite sure I understand your question, nor am I familiar with Napster (I'm not a fan of DRM), but if you're worried about your files, always backup using as many different avenues as possible. DVD is one of the better ways (as you have probably read), but burning to a CD, copying to an external HDD, storing it on another computer, keeping a copy online, putting files on a flash drive, etc. are just some of the ways you can backup your songs. Not sure if this answers your question - if not, please rephrase and I'll try and help as best I can...

Probably better to use high quality cds (cos dvds are less stable), and an external HD
(there are lots of threads here discussing storage and disc quality)

now I have a new problem...I have a lot of mp3s - some of them have id3 ( don't have a clue what this is) is misisng...what I want to do is for once and for all - just rename ALL of my mp3s.
I tried using helium (someone suggested it ) and boy oh boy - it is so complicated !!!..any other suggestions?? My mp3 collection is very big and I don't want to loose that ??
If I try to sit and rename each and every one of those - it would take centuries!!!

Tag & Rename is what you need. Not free, but it has a generous trial period, and there is also a new beta version available.

In regard to the audio quality, 192kbps is good quality and is the highest available for WMA. To a normal persons ear this is perfectly good quality audio. Even 18kbps sounds good. Lower than that is noticeable. Also if you have an mp3 at 320kbps, then after itunes has convertedit to AAC, the AAC file will also be 320kbps, so no quality is lost

thanks guys !