Some young and semingly computer savvy kids at two department stores, while I was looking for a boombox for work that would play my burned cd's, told me they write the mp3's to data files and are able to fit many more songs on a cd-r and play them on simple players just for cd's and cd-r's, not mp3 compatible players. Anybody know how to do this? Can it be done with iTunes?

The short answer: no, it can't be done that way. Audio CD standards are such that a standard audio CD player can only play uncompressed audio files. MP3, OGG, AAC, and FLAC files can be written as data to a CD-R (and play back on a computer or compatible player), but a CD-audio-only player won't even see them, let alone play them. A music CD and a data CD have entirely different disc layouts; that's one of the reasons why there are special "music" CD-R discs for the dual-deck CD player/burners.

The longer answer is this: all the various compressed music files (like MP3) take the CD-audio file and make it smaller. You can write those smaller MP3 files onto a CD-R disc with a CD burner, and you will fit many more songs onto a CD-R than if they were the original size.

The new CD can be played on a computer with an application like iTunes. Some CD players can also decode MP3 files, so you can play the new CD on them (some newer walkman and car audio CD players will do this). This MP-3 playing feature will be prominently displayed on the player or on the box.

If you use iTunes to import (rip) the music from your regular music CDs, you can then create new CDs with either regular music-CD tracks (with about an hour of music), or MP-3 tracks (with many hours of music but which will only play in select devices.) You can also download your MP3 files to an MP3 player like the iPod.

Does this clear anything up?
Ken

Thanks Ken.
Sort of clears it up. But they say they are specifically writing the MP-3's to data files to accomplish well over one hundred songs on the CD. I'm probably just not understanding what each of you is saying. I'll try tracking them down for more, detailed info. Yes I use iTunes as well. Maybe they meant to write them to data CD's? These kids are PC users. Maybe that makes some difference?
Thanks so much for the reply to this tyro.
Dan

Dan,
Did you ever figure out how to do this? I know what you are talking about but I can't anywhere that will tell me how to do it.

Thanks,
Amber

Hello Amber.

No, I never have figured this out. I recall, vividly, the teens telling me that it could be done, as they did it regularly. But I've basically forgotten about it as I found an MP3 player suitable for work. And it doesn't play all that I record anyway.
If you do find out the answer, please let me know.

Thanks for your question,
Dan