I am contemplating archiving all my CDs to an Applelossless library using iTunes. Before doing so, I have some questions. We are in a WIN XP environment.

1) How do I convert an Apple Lossless album to AAC format with all the album info in tack to a separate iTunes library?

2) How do I give multiple WIN XP users access to this single AAC library via iTunes to load their iPod or buy music for this single AAC library?

3) If I add CDs to the Apple Lossless library using iTunes, is there a way to keep the AAC library automatically in sync?

Is there a better approach I should consider?

Thanks for the help experts!

1. You can tell iTunes to convert your Apple lossless files to AAC and put them in a physically different location but, in iTunes, the AAC songs will show up right next to the Apple lossless files.

2. I am not sure about that as I have never wanted to setup a quasi-music store.

3. There might be a script out there for that but I need to do some searching in order to find it. Then again, that script would only work on Mac OS X so that causes a problem.

I use an Automator script on my MacBook to convert my new lossless files to AAC for my portable hard drive I use at work. It changes the encoder preferences to AAC, does the conversion, and then changes the encoder preference back to lossless. Perhaps there is something similar on the Windows side.