[meem]

I am proabably going to be getting a new Mac in the next few months and was curious is there was a way to transfer songs purchaed from iTMS to a new computer as I am probably going to give my current one to my brother (who does not live with me). I'd rather not burn to CD then rip them again to mp3. Apple must have considered that people get new computers right? Does that migration assistant transfer primary rights to the new computer?

[wataru]

The migration assistant will transfer the files, but it won't transfer authorization to play them. To authorize your new computer, just try to play one of the purchased songs. It will prompt you to authorize the machine. Be sure to de-authorize your old machine before giving it to your brother.

And there's no such thing as "primary rights." Either a machine is authorized or it isn't. And you know the songs are just files, right? Even if you don't use the migration assistant, you could just copy the files from one machine to the other any way you like. There is no need to burn audio CDs of your songs.

[meem]

Thanks, I was thinking about it all wrong.

[Tsilou B.]

Many Windows Media music stores know this concept of "primary rights". The computer you use for downloading the music gets the primary rights, so that computer will be able to not only play the music, but also burn it to CD or copy it to a portable player. Even if you have the right to transfer the music to more than one computer, all the other computers can only play back the music - they can neither burn it nor copy it.
With iTunes, it's a lot simpler, just as wataru said: "Either a machine is authorized or it isn't."
You can always authorize up to 5 machines and on all these computers, you can play, burn and copy the music (to iPods).