My iTunes library is about 60% hand-loaded from my CD collection and about 40% purchased from iTunes. About a year ago, a certain subset (about two-thirds) of my purchased music suddenly would no longer play. A message would pop up to the effect that "This computer is not authorized to play this song."
I learned where the "Authorization" menu was, and I tried to authorize the songs in question, but no dice. The authorization process would go through just fine, but the same error message would pop up if I tried to play the song.
So I tried to get help from iTunes Support (lol). As you may know, iTunes offers no telephone support, so you have to e-mail them. Here are the e-mail exchanges, edited for length:
ITUNES:
Thank you for contacting the iTunes Store. My name is Dan and I understand that you have been unable to successfully authorize your computer to play some of your purchases. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this issue has caused and I will use every resource available to me to ensure your experience with the iTunes Store is a pleasurable one. I did a little investigating and found that you have multiple iTunes accounts: [MY EMAIL] and ksk833@hotmail.com. Please note that it is not possible to merge two or more accounts, and your computers need to be authorized for all of your accounts or some of your purchases may not play.
ME: This is incorrect. iTunes has made an error. The information indicated for each of the songs that will currently not play is that they were all purchased with the [MY EMAIL] account. I have never had an e-mail address of ksk833@hotmail.com. Please look into this further. We anticipate your prompt reply and remedy. Thank you.
ITUNES:
Dear Alison, [My name is not Alison]
I understand that you have not been able to play your iTunes purchases due to an authorization issue you have encountered. It will be a pleasure to provide you with information that may help resolve your situation. Make sure that both accounts are authorized in all of your computers or some of your purchases may not play.
ME:
My name is not Alison, it is [___]. You are not reading my e-mails carefully. I DO NOT HAVE AN ACCOUNT UNDER THE E-MAIL ADDRESS KSK833@HOTMAIL.COM. THAT IS SOMEONE ELSE'S E-MAIL, IT IS NOT MINE. ALL OF THE SONGS I PURCHASED WERE PURCHASED WITH [MY EMAIL] ACCOUNT. HOWEVER, A NUMBER OF THEM WILL NOT AUTHORIZE. Please look into this further and remedy this situation immediately. This is not a standard problem-- iTunes has made an error that involves erroneously tagging some of my purchases with an account and e-mail that does not belong to me. This cannot be solved with your form responses.
ITUNES:
Dear [Correct Name],
I apologize for any frustration this issue has caused and for the confusion in the previous email. I understand that you are still having authorization issues with your purchases. Please make sure that both accounts are authorized in all of your computers or some of your purchases may not play.
I'll spare you the remaining exchanges, which repeat the last one. I e-mailed
ksk88@hotmail.com and got no response.
If you've made it this far or skipped to the end, what can I do to make those songs play? I gave up for about a year, but it's bothering me again. Any help would be much appreciated.