I have been doing some research and got a very helpful phonecall
that helped a bit.
I have a mac computer and bought some music on itunes. I am trying to burn a new cd using mp3 format, but, in the help menu it says "you can convert a song to a different file format, (and keep a copy of the original) You cannot convert Itunes Store purchases". Unfortunately, most of the songs were purchased at itunes. I didn't realize all this would make a difference. I figured a disk was a disk and it should just play in whatever player I have. What was I thinking??
(guess I'm used to cassettes)
So I burned one at 8x speed to see what would happen and VOILA! IT WORKED!!!!!
Thanks EVERYONE!!!!