Downloading music onto iPod in Germany

The good news, ITunes Germany has just about everything you'd ever want, songs and just about everything else, from modern to classical, I however did a little research, as you may know U.S. ITunes is limited on what they carry and sell from Germany, and the German ITunes Store won't let U.S. customers purchase from the German website, at least that's what my research showed me. Here's a suggestion that may work if you are you taking a laptop. Download ITunes to your computer and access the German ITunes Store there, download the music to your computer then to the IPod after you have what you want. That way you'll have it saved for future access in case you lose your IPod or it needs to be replaced. The idea of taking a new IPod is good too, it should be able to be used if it's never been used. Or if need be buy one while in Germany, your exchange student can help you with that.

nancygroh,

I'm not sure there's going to be an easy solution, as I believe iTunes links each device to a specific account and only allows downloads onto a specific number of devices per account. A few thoughts on your questions......

• Having my former exchange student download songs onto it at her house. Is that possible? It's probably possible if the student links the iPod to her account (assuming she hasn't reached the limit on the number of allowable devices on her account). However, if the iPod is subsequently linked to an American iTunes account, I'm not sure whether the songs purchased on the German account would be deleted?
• Would German iTunes know that this iPod has an American account, and refuse to download onto it? When the iPod is connected in Germany, the iTunes store will likely ask if the user wants to switch the device to the German store. This may delete any music previously loaded from the American store?

I'm not sure the method described in the previous reply would work as the Laptop can only be attached to one iTunes store. However, I should mention that I've never tried that.

The easiest solution would be to purchase the iPod Touch in the U.S. (where it will probably be cheaper) and load whatever music you want from your home iTunes store and home computer, including whatever German music you can find on the U.S. store. If you're going to be travelling with a Laptop, you could also borrow CD's from your exchange student (or buy a few) and then load whatever songs you want onto the iPod.

Good luck and happy travels!

What type of music are you looking for? Schlager? Volksmusik? I've found that if there is a difference in availability in music, it's difficulty getting US music in Germany, not the other way around. It's fairly uncommon, but happens occassionally, usually with specific artists.

Well since we've been told my idea won't work and we're throwing ideas out there maybe this idea will, others please chime in. The main problem here is the difficulty of using Apples ITunes stores in North America and Germany, I suggest don't use ITunes or an IPod at all, instead get a standard MP3 player that can be used with Windows Media Player or any music management software compatible to the MP3 player . Though you won't be accessing the ITunes store (which is a problem encountered anyway) it's an easy platform to use, basic MP3 players are a lot cheaper than IPods and don't need the unique software that is needed for Apple products, though they do have software it should be easier to transfer it from computer to computer since you may be using your own at home and your exchange students in Germany. And since this is a child and it's children's music you desire there's no need to spend so much on a product for a child when there is an less expensive product that will serve the same purpose and will be easier to use in the long run, since this is a young child they may not want to wear it for very long or not pay a lot of attention if played through a speaker system, if this was a teenager yeah an IPod would be the way to go but a child won't care or shouldn't and being it's a child and they're the primary user the chance for them damaging it is there too. The CD route is the way you'll probably have to go, you can also get music from Amazon for MP3. Hopefully others that have used this platform can expand on this idea. Overall, I think this will help you avoid the hoops and fire rings Apple requires and will be cheaper.

Why not simply buy a couple of CDs or DVDs and rip them via iTunes on a PC or Mac, then transfer them to the IPod?

As others have mentioned, set up a German iTunes account using a German address and a new email address. If you don't have access to German iTunes gift cards (you can only buy them in Germany), set up another account at clickandbuy.com using a German address and link your American credit card to it. You can use this account to pay for items in the German iTunes store. I'm fairly certain that clickandbuy.com and Apple will never actually send you any physical mail, the address is just to verify that it is a German account.

I don't know if the following will work, but it won't hurt to try. See if Amazon.de has the songs you want as MP3's. You can log into Amazon.de with your US login and password, and it will pull up your account (shipping addresses, stored credit cards, etc). I know you have have physical items shipped from Amazon.de to the US, but I don't know if music downloads are restricted in some way.

MP3's will play in any music player, including iPods.

Or, if you can't download the songs and want them badly enough, order the CD's from Amazon.de and have them shipped to the US.