How to download an audio book from your hard disk to your non-iPod Media Player

This article describes how to download an audio book for most common brands of portable media players such as Digital River, Creative, Sandisk, etc. is not applicable to Apple's iPod or some other digital players that require the download of proprietary software supplied with the devices. (If you have an iPod, see my other article "How to download your audiobooks to an iPod" even at EzineArticles.)

After you download your audio book on a hard drive or other storage device, you must first open the audio file from your computer, if digital rights management (DRM) license is in force. DRM processes usually place a file on your hard drive with your license information that indicates that you are the rightful owner of the content downloaded. This means that you can access the audio files without any problem.

When you click on the audio file to open it, a dialog box that asks for your username and password. Upon entering, you can continue to work with digital files, is to listen on your computer or copy them to portable media player.

Most popular brands of portable media players have the ability to manage files DRM license.

Do not use Internet Explorer to copy the program files from hard drive to your media player. It will copy but will not be able to play, because Internet Explorer is not able to manage the process of licensing DRM. Instead, use Windows Media Player (WMP or any software that was supplied by the manufacturer of the media player).

If you use Windows Media Player (make sure you have the latest version), load WMP, locate the audio files so they are listed in the window title, highlight the files and drag them to the right column in the Sync List. When you see the message "Ready to Synchronize" appear on the right screen the names of digital audio files to the Sync List, click the Start Sync button at the bottom of the screen. This will start the transfer of files on your media player.

Once the files have been transferred, you can disconnect the player and listen to media files wherever you want.

I recommend that you zip (compress audio files) remaining on the hard disk and copy them onto a CD as backup copies. In this way you will not unnecessarily add to the confusion on the hard drive, and if a disaster occurs, you'll still have the audio files that you paid.

Copyright 2007 Robin Henry - Published March 7