I hate computers! Why is it one problem always becomes at leat two

1st issue, I-tunes is downloading as m4p files which nothing (except RealPlayer) will play & the Apple forum site says page not found. It won't convert it either... something about once bought or some other Cr*p. How do I make it download as MP3?

No problem I thought, Real is Premium version, I'll convert it to MP3 - strange message syaing you have to play track first, so I did, but it still won't convert

Any suggestions... I just want to burn my tracks to CD now but nothing will do m4p files?