Remove DRM from iTunes music on Windows and Mac

[terry007]

There are many ways to remove DRM protection from iTunes music. On Windows OS, you can remove the DRM from iTunes music using the burn-and-rip method or you can turn to programs like TuneClone and DoubleTwist. On Mac OS X, iMovie is the perfect solution to removing DRM from iTunes music. Besides, freewares like FairGame is also a pretty good choice. So this article is dedicated to introducing several methods of removing the nasty DRM from iTunes music on Windows and Mac OS X. It is divided into the following four parts:

Part 1. Remove DRM from iTunes music on Windows with burn-and-rip method

A. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive. You’d better use CD-RW disc as it can be used for more than once.
B. Burn your playlist to make an audio CD. You cannot select the MP3 CD option since it requires the protected music files be converted to unprotected MP3 files.
C. After the audio CD is successfully burned, insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive again. Then you can use iTunes to import the music tracks on the burned disc to MP3 files.

Part 2. Remove DRM from iTunes music on Windows with TuneClone

A. Download TuneClone from http://www.tuneclone.com and install it.

It is fully compatible with Windows XP and Vista. A virtual CD Burner will be installed. This virtual CD-RW will be used to convert music files.

B. Set the default CD Burner to TuneClon CD-RW at iTunes.

Click menu Edit, select menu item Preferences..., and then select Advanced Tab. In order to keep the artist and title information of the music, the Include CD Text option should be checked.



C. Create a playlist, and then add the files you want to convert into the playlist.

D. Click Burn Disc button at the bottom right of the main screen of iTunes.

While the burning gets started, TuneClone will automatically convert the music file to MP3, WMA or WAV. You can open the manager screen to show all the converted music files.

The most important step is to choose the cd burner. Then the software can convert the music files automatically. It is exceedingly easy when you want to batch convert lots of files.

Part 3. Remove DRM from iTunes music on Mac OS X with iMovie



In the iMovie window, select the 'Media' tab located between 'Themes' and 'Editing'. You will notice that the top right portion of the interface now offers a media browser. Select the 'Audio' tab and locate the playlist which contains purchased music, or search by artist/title.





Select the DRM-laden song and drag the file from the media browser into the iMovie timeline where it says "Drag audio here to build your project."



In order to export the song, iMovie requires that a visual image be associated with the audio track - iMovie thinks that it is going to be exporting a movie. Simply drag a blank image (or any other image) to the track above the previously imported audio file. Once iMovie has processed the image, select the 'Share…' sub menu item from found inside 'Share' in iMovie's menu bar.



Ensure that 'Expert Settings' is selected in the "Compress movie for:" drop-down menu. Selecting 'Expert Settings' mode will provide the options to export the file as an audio file. Select the 'Share' button.

In the Save as… dialogue, select "Sound to AIFF" in the Export drop-down menu, Choose an appropriate directory for iMovie to export to, title the file, and select 'Save'. Depending on your machine configuration, iMovie will compress and export the movie project as an audio file in 15-40 seconds.



Locate the exported AIFF audio file and drag to your iTunes Library. Right-click on the file and select "Convert Selection to AAC". Once completed, 'Get Info' on the new file, edit meta data, add album art, and trash the originally purchased and AIFF audio files from your iTunes library.

Part 4. Remove DRM from iTunes music on Mac OS X with FairGame

FairGame is freeware to remove DRM protection from iTunes music on Mac OS X. It will convert the DRMed songs you bought on the iTunes Store to an unprotected format (using iTunes default encoder) and keep all the original metadata, lyrics and artwork. FairGame doesn't do lossless DRM stripping. It re-encodes protected AAC files purchased in iTMS into unprotected AAC file using Apple's iMovie software.



What you MUST DO (only once) to get FairGame to work:

   Enable "Access for assistive devices" in the "Universal Access" system preference
   Select "Place clip in Movie Timeline" in the "Import" preference of iMovie HD

Then you can simply:

   Select some songs in iTunes
   Click on the "Process songs" button

Don't touch anything and wait until it's done...(FairGame is scripting iMovie's interface to process the songs, don't interfere)

[Huupe]

MelodyCan is a powerful multimedia converter. It's main distinguishing feature is an extremely effective PC utilization in order to perform high conversion speed and reliable conversion results.

Following this guide, you can convert allmost any audio and video purchased online to commonly used formats with ease, including:

* Record M4P to MP3, WAV, M4A
* Record WMA to MP3, M4A
* Encode M4V to DivX video
* Encode WMV to iPod video
* Rip and convert audio CD's
* Save and convert any video from YouTube
* Extract audio from video

1
Download MelodyCan Video edition, install and run it. The demo version of the program is available here

2
Set desired MelodyCan settings by clicking on "settings" button in the program window:
Checkbox “Automatically start conversion” means that conversion will start immediately after the program startup.
If you check “Advanced mode”, you’ll be able to listen to converted files in MelodyCan window.
Don’t forget to choose the suitable encoder for audio and video files and convfigure output folder settings (so your converted files will be saved in the desired location).



3
Then return to the main program window and select the files for conversion using “Select Files” button in MelodyCan main window toolbar.  By the way it's possible to drag’n’drop entire folders with your music and video from Windows Explorer to MelodyCan window. Smart feature.



4
After you finished just click on “Convert” button to start the conversion. In the result your converted files will appear in the output folder.



As I've mentioned before MelodyCan includes YouTube Ripper. It appears as a plug-in for Internet Explorer. After MelodyCan installation finishes, you can find the button "Rip YouTube file" in Internet Explorer main menu. Just open YouTube video in Internet Explorer -> Tools -> Rip YouTube file embedded in this page and the desired video will be downloaded and automatically converted by MelodyCan.



The program supports Windows XP, 2003s and Vista.

TIPS:

*  The demo version of the program is available on http://www.melodycan.com/download_page.html With the demo version, you can convert 3 minutes of each video file and 30 seconds of each music file.
*  MelodyCan is easy to install and use with a very handy and clear user interface.
*  Super fast conversion, up to 50x the playback speed for audio files in batch mode

Minimum system requirements:

Vista x32,  Windows XP x32 or Windows 2003 x32
256 Megabyte RAM
Windows Media Player 9 or higher installed

[terry007]

As a vista user, I have been using TuneClone for quite a long time. It converts all kinds of DRMed music to MP3, WAV, unprotected WMA with high quality at very fast speed. And the virtual CD burning is awesome.

[Huupe]

It seems Not an easy task to find a working converter for Vista! Did a quick Google, and of course about 300 programs popped up on some suspicious sites.
But I really need to convert a few protected iTunes videos. I tested a couple of sites and detected Melodycan Ultra Video Converter. Their free trial is quite impressive and allows converting video and audio formats both protected and standard ones. The main requirement is the ability to play the original file in Windows Media Player (for WMV) or QuickTime Player (for M4V).
Their URL is http://www.melodycan.com/

[terry007]

The music files you purchased from iTunes store are under DRM protection. You cannot play them on your own mobile devices other than iPod and iPhone. You cannot convert the DRM protected music files to MP3 or WMA directly with iTunes media player, either. However you can burn the protected music files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make an audio CD and then use some CD ripper software to convert the audio CD track back to MP3, WAV, WMA, etc. And iTunes allows you to burn the protected music files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make a standard audio CD. If you have only a few music files, you can use the method below:

1. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive. You'd better use CD-RW disc as it can be used for more than once.
2. Burn your playlist to make an audio CD. You cannot select the MP3 CD option since it requires the protected music files be converted to unprotected MP3 files.
3. After the audio CD is successfully burned, insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive again. Then you can use iTunes to import the music tracks on the burned disc to MP3 files.
4. Copy the MP3 files to media players such as cell phone, Zune, BlackBerry, PSP, Creative Zen, etc. and enjoy them.

These four steps seem very simple, however, it is a time consuming process if you have a library of music files ready to be converted. Moreover, the information of the music files like title, artist and album will be lost after burning and ripping back to MP3 files.

TuneClone is the software you are looking for if you have a big collection of iTunes music files to be converted. It automatically generates a virtual CD burner and simulates the burning and ripping process. All you need to do is install TuneClone and then burn your playlist to TuneClone virtual CD burner. And TuneClone will directly convert the music files to MP3 for you. It is very fast and all the artist, album and title information will be preserved perfectly.

1. Download TuneClone from http://www.tuneclone.com and install it.

It is fully compatible with Windows XP and Vista. A virtual CD Burner will be installed. This virtual CD-RW will be used to convert music files.

2. Set the default CD Burner to TuneClon CD-RW at iTunes.

Click menu Edit, select menu item Preferences..., and then select Advanced Tab. In order to keep the artist and title information of the music, the Include CD Text option should be checked.



3. Create a playlist, and then add the files you want to convert into the playlist.

4. Click Burn Disc button at the bottom right of the main screen of iTunes.



While the burning gets started, TuneClone will automatically convert the music file to MP3, WMA or WAV. You can open the manager screen to show all the converted music files.



The most important step is to choose the cd burner. Then the software can convert the music files automatically. It is exceedingly easy when you want to batch convert lots of files.

[elmerettaz]

You can also try Tunebite,works great for converting audio and video files, drm'ed or not.

[Huupe]

I use 5 in 1 extremely powerful Melodycan converter.

There is such useful features:

Convert DRM protected Audio & Video

MelodyCan Video Converter

MelodyCan Audio CD Ripper

MelodyCan YouTube Ripper

MelodyCan Audio Converter

Download& Try

[elmerettaz]

I guess I tried this one too, but finally decided to get Tunebite.

[terry007]

You want to migrate from iPod to Zune but the main reason you haven't made that jump is because you have your iTunes library. TuneClone Audio Converter has come to the rescue!

[elmerettaz]

Nice, although doesn't work for converting video files.

[Huupe]

prefer to use powerful Melodycan Ultra Video converter. This software converts avi (Windows Video), WMV (Windows Media Video) and m4v, mov, aac, ra, aa, mp4, snd, aif, m4p, rax, wav, ogg etc.

you may try it too. Great software! 

[elmerettaz]

I'd rather use Tunebite, it's efficient and easy to use.

[Tiffany08]

I would like to recommend NoteBurner DRM Music Converter which can convert DRM protected iTunes music on both Windows and Mac systems. The converting speed is super fast!

Convert iTunes DRM music on Windows:

Step 1: Run NoteBurner, and click Settings button, then you can set the output as MP3, WAV or WMA

Step 2: Run iTunes 8. Create a new playlist in iTunes and add all m4p files you want to convert to this new list. Click on the Burn Disc button and choose NoteBurner Virtual CD-RW as your default burner to burn the playlist.



Step 3: After NoteBurner finish encoding, the converted file will be automatically listed on the main window of NoteBurner.
Click Play button or double-click any song to play the music.
Click the Folder button to open the output folder, where you will find the converted MP3 files.

Convert iTunes DRM music on Mac:

Step 1: Run NoteBurner, and choose output format and output folder.
Go to the top-left NoteBurner > Preferences…
Here you can specify output path where the converted audio files will be located in, choose the desired output format from MP3 and AAC, and set the output quality.
If you want to be alerted when there is an update, check the option of “Check Updates on Startup”.



Step 2: Run iTunes, and click menu File > New Playlist in iTunes to create a new playlist to hold all music and audiobooks you want to burn.
Right-click on the music in music library and audiobooks in Audiobooks library to choose Add to Playlist and choose the list created. Press Shift or Command key to add more than one file to the playlist at one time.
After adding files to playlist, click Burn Disc button to set NoteBurner as the default burner, and then click Burn button to start burning the playlist.



Step 3: After NoteBurner finishs encoding, you can right click on the music and select “Show In Finder” to check the converted audio files in the output folder.

[Huupe]

Many a times you may want to remove DRM from your iTunes music collection for the simple reason that you want to play the songs that you

legally purchased over the internet to work in your home-thearte system or just in any other player other than your iPod and iTunes.

I found a great solution - Melodycan 5 in 1 audio/video converter.



Feature list:

* very easy to use and install
* Remove DRM protection from any song that can be played with Media Player to

MP3, AAC, WAV etc for use with iPod, any other MP3 player, CD player, mobile phone or PC
* unprotects practically all DRM audio and video files
* unprotects and converts songs and movies for use with iPod, any other MP3 player, CD player, mobile phone or PC
* converted songs and movies have NO DRM restriction anymore
* preserves ID3 tags for artist, album, title names etc.
* batch mode for converting or unprotecting large song collections
* allows to convert complete folder structures and recreates these structures on output
* selectable compression level and output format
* super fast conversion, up to 50x the playback speed in batch mode
* can convert in HIFI and CD quality

System Requirements:

Windows® XP x32, Windows® 2003 x32 or Windows® Vista x32
1 GHz processor or faster
256 MB RAM or more
Windows Media® Player 9 or higher installed, which can be downloaded for free from Microsoft®

Download& Try

[elmerettaz]

Interesting guides.Nice.