Itunes downloads

Yes, there are a couple of ways to do that (probably more than a couple, actually, but here are two.)

When you connect your Touch to your computer and click on it under the 'Devices' tab in iTunes, under the 'Summary' tab there will be a checkbox in the 'Options' menu at the bottom of the window called 'Convert higher bit rate songs to...' that will let you choose bit rates of 128, 192 or 256 kbps. Then, when you sync songs to the touch they will be converted to the mp3 bit rate you've selected as they're downloaded without affecting the orginal lossless files. Transferring them to the Touch will take awhile because they're being converted before download.

You can also go into your iTunes library, duplicate the Apple Lossless files and convert them using an application like Max, create an mp3 playlist for those songs and sync it to your Touch but the method above is definitely the easiest.

Thanks

I wasn't aware iTunes offers lossless downloads. I do not think they do....

Coffee1, Why MP3 and not Apple AAC (native to Ipod, Ipad etc.) that sounds better. The only decent MP3 encoder I remember was "Lame Mp3". Mp3 can be played on any DVD player but other than that AAC is better (not to be confused with lossless ALAC that produces same extension). I used to rip into 256kbps with variable bit rate option set on to use with MiniDisc but now I use ALAC for my main system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

Joncourage - you're right, you can't buy lossless downloads through the iTunes store but the iTunes application can store and play lossless files that have been created by ripping discs or downloaded from other sources.

Kijanki - thanks for the chance to make a correction. The process I described for producing smaller files by converting during download from iTunes creates AAC files, not mp3. It does accomplish what Coffee1 is after, files that will easily fit on an 8Gb player, but does that by creating AAC files rather than mp3.