Put iTunes M4P onto Windows Media Player

The following tutorial will show you how to remove DRM from iTunes protected AAC (M4P) music and convert M4P to (DRM free) WMA/MP3 so as to put iTunes M4P music onto Windows Media Player for syncing to a lot more mobile players.

Why Put iTunes M4P music onto Windows Media Player?

When you purchase music from iTunes Store, you actually get DRM protected content (in protected AAC or M4P format), which you will not be able to play on MP3/MP4 players and other non-Apple mobile players. You cannot directly transfer the M4P files to Windows Media Player, either. In such case, the option is to burn those tracks to an audio CD and then rip them (with iTunes or Windows Media Player) once again to your computer hard drive wherein the DRM will be removed and you will get the tracks in (DRM free) MP3 or WMA format. After this you will be able to transfer them to Windows Media Player.

In case you have purchased a great amount of music from iTunes Store, you can go ahead and use TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter which acts as a Virtual CD-ROM drive on your PC and lets you remove the DRM element without having to waste actual CD's, with the music ID3 tags info well preserved.

Step by Step: Burn and Rip iTunes M4P Music for Windows Media Player?

1. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Burn the iTunes M4P playlist to make an audio CD. You cannot select the "MP3 CD" option since it requires the DRM protected iTunes M4P files be converted to MP3 or WMA files for Windows Media Player.
3. After the audio CD is successfully burned, insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive again. Then you can use iTunes or Windows Media Player to import the music tracks on the burned disc as MP3 or WMA files.

Step by Step: Convert iTunes M4P Music for Windows Media Player with TuneClone

1. Create a new playlist in iTunes.

2. Add the M4P songs to the playlist.

3. Launch TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter. Click the "Settings" tab. In the pop-up window, you can specify output folder, output file name format, output format (choose MP3 or WMA), etc for the output files. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed in the bottom left corner of the interface.



4. Switch to iTunes. In iTunes, click the "Burn Disc" button.

5. In the pop-up window of "Burn Settings", select "TuneClon Virtual_CD-RW" from the "CD Burner" drop-down list, click the radio button next to "Audio CD" and tick "Include CD Text" option. Click "Burn" to start burning.



6. Upon the completion of burning the disc and encoding the music, you can open the TuneClone manager screen to show all the converted music files. To locate the output folder, simply click the "Folder" tab on the interface.

How to Convert iTunes M4P Music to Zune WMA MP3

You are considering buying a Zune as you broke your iPod or had your iPod stolen. And you bought a lot of songs from iTunes store because you had money left on your iTunes gift card. You still want to enjoy those purchased songs on your Zune music player. Or you own an iPod while your boyfriend/girlfriend has a Zune. You hope to share the M4P music purchased from iTunes store under your account with your boyfriend/girlfriend. Here comes the headache! The M4P music you bought from iTunes is DRM-laden! You cannot transfer the M4P music to the Zune software, not to mention play the M4P music on your Zune music player.

Yet, there seems to be a solution. You can burn the protected M4P music to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make an audio CD and then use some CD ripper software to rip the audio CD track back to Zune accepted MP3 or WMA format. iTunes allows you to burn protected AAC (M4P) music to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make a standard audio CD. Sounds a good idea! But it would be a time consuming process if you have a library of iTunes M4P files ready to be converted to Zune MP3 or WMA. Moreover, the ID3 tags about the M4P music like title, artist and album will be missing after burning and ripping back to MP3 or WMA files. So this method is not recommended if you have a big collection of iTunes M4P files ready to be transferred to your Zune.

I've made a Google search for programs that can convert iTunes M4P to Zune WMA or MP3, and TuneClone Audio Converter attracted my attention. The edge of TuneClone over other similar programs is that it applys the virtual CD burning tech to simulates the burning and ripping process. You just need to burn the iTunes M4P playlist to TuneClone virtual CD drive. TuneClone will directly convert the iTunes M4P music list to Zune WMA or MP3. It is very fast and the music metadata will be well preserved. Below are several key steps to convert iTunes M4P music to Zune MP3 or WMA using TuneClone Audio Converter.

1. Make settings at TuneClone



Click the "Settings" button at TuneClone. In the pop-up window, you can specify the output folder, output filenames, output format, etc. for the converted MP3 or WMA files.

Tip: You can get the converted music folder by clicking the "Folder" button after the whole process.

2. Make settings at iTunes



Click "Edit -> Preferences... -> Advanced -> Burning". Select TuneClone's virtual CD-RW drive as CD burner. In the "Disc Format" option, tick "Audio CD".

Tip 1: In order to keep the ID3 tags about the music, the "Include CD Text" option should be checked.
Tip 2: The most important step is to choose the CD burner. Then the software can convert the music files automatically.

3. Create a playlist

Create a playlist, and then add the iTunes M4P music files you want to convert to Zune WMA or MP3 into the playlist. After the conversion, the WMA or MP3 music folder should be located under the folder you specified at first. The name of the music folder should be the same as that of the iTunes playlist you created.

Tip: It is exceedingly easy and fast when you want to batch convert lots of files.

After you get the output folder, now you can transfer it to your Zune software so as to enjoy the iTunes music on your Zune music player.