Transfer iTunes songs to non-Apple music player or mobile phone

I have a little Sansa mp3 player, but my mom has an iPod. I have been downloading music from the iTunes store, but I can't put them on my player. I realize that the songs from iTunes are .mpeg files (or something like that) and that my music player plays .mp3 files, but is there any way that I could work around this, or possibly convert my .mpeg files?

My iPod broke, so I want to buy a new mp3 player, but I was thinking that this time I might try a different brand because iPods are usually a little more on the expensive side. But I still have all my iTunes songs i already bought and was wondering if it was a huge hassle to transfer them to something else and if it might be worth it to spend the extra money on the apple brand..

The songs you purchased from iTunes store are DRM protected. In order to transfer iTunes songs to a non-Apple music player or mobile phone, you will need to get the iTunes music converted first.

If you have a blank CD disc at hand and there are not many songs that need to be converted, you can try this way:

1. Insert the blank CD into your computer disc drive.
2. Create a new playlist in iTunes and add songs to the playlist.
3. Burn the playlist to the CD (choose Audio CD in the Burn Settings window).
4. Rip the burned CD back as MP3 files in iTunes or Windows Media Player.

Then you can transfer the MP3 files to your non-Apple music player or mobile phone.

What if you have lots of songs (say 1000+) that need to be converted? You still use the above burn-and-rip method? You know, a real CD disc can only hold about 79-min music. If the average length of each song is 4 minutes, then the total length would be 4000+ minutes. And you will need more than 50 discs for burning. What a waste of money! What's more, it is a waste of efforts to insert and eject CD discs again and again. So it is inadvisable to convert a large library of iTunes music using this method.

The software TuneClone also adopts the burn-and-rip method. However, TuneClone cleverly avoids the problem by applying the virtual CD burning technology. The conversion theory of TuneClone is very simple. It installs a virtual CD drive to users' computers. Then while burning iTunes playlists to an audio CD, you just choose the TuneClone virtual CD drive instead of a real CD disc. So you have saved the cost of real CD discs.

Besides, TuneClone automatically detects whether the length of the playlist exceeds 79 min. If so, it will ask you whether or not to burn multiple audio CDs. After you choose Audio CDs, the burning and encoding process will get started and TuneClone will automatically divide the playlist into several folders. You can actually switch to other jobs before the conversion is completed. So you have saved time as well.

Removing DRM from iTunes Music on Mac

The following article will share with you four ways of removing DRM protection from iTunes music on Mac OS X. You can choose your favorite method to help you convert iTunes M4P music to MP3 or (DRM free) AAC format for playback on MP3 Player, MP4 Player, Mobile Phone Player, etc.

Method 1. Remove DRM from iTunes music with burning-and-ripping method

1. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive

2. Run iTunes, create a new playlist and burn it to make an "Audio CD"

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 as whatever format (MP3, AAC, etc) you selected in iTunes preferences for importing.

Method 2. Remove DRM from iTunes music with Virtual CD Burner

You will need to download TuneClone Audio Converter for Mac first. Run this DRM Removal Software and it will let you install a virtual CD burner, which will be used to convert iTunes music files.

Run iTunes, create a new playlist and add the DRM protected iTunes songs to the playlist.

Right click this playlist and choose "Burn Playlist to Disc". Alternatively, you can click the "Burn Disc" button at the lower right corner of iTunes interface.

In the pop-up dialog of "Burn Settings", select "CDWriter TuneClone" as default CD Burner, choose "Audio CD" as Disc Format and tick "Include CD Text" ( to perserve the music metadata such as name, artist, album names ).

Tip: You can easily get the output MP3 files on your Mac machine by clicking the "Reveal in Finder" button on the manager screen.

Method 3. Remove DRM from iTunes music with iMovie '09

Run iMovie and create a New Project. In the iMovie window, select the 'Music' tab. You will notice that the top right portion of the interface now offers a media browser. 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.

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 'Export using QuickTime…' sub menu item from found inside 'Share' in iMovie's menu bar.

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'.

Locate the exported AIFF audio file and drag to your iTunes Library. Right-click on the file and select "Create MP3 Version". 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.

Method 4. Remove DRM from iTunes music 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)

How to convert iTunes Plus to MP3?

The other day Apple announced that it was making about 80% of the iTunes store DRM free, with the remaining 20% to follow shortly. DRM-free iTunes means that in theory you should be able move your music to other computers and devices easily...

But... iTunes Plus DRM-free music comes in .m4a format which is based on the MPEG-4 part 14 standard. Problem is, far more devices don't recognize what to do with .m4a than do (and its video sibling, .m4v). MP3 is a far more popular format.

So, can you convert .m4a files into.mp3 files? Yes you can, and you can do it all from within iTunes (iTunes 8)! Here's how:

1. Click on Edit -> Preferences.... From the General tab click on Import Settings... button.



2. Change the Import Using drop down box to MP3 Encoder.

3. From the Settings drop down box select Custom... and choose a Stereo Bit Rate of 256Kbps.



4. Click OK, OK and OK.

5. Now find a file that you want to convert, right-click on it and select Create MP3 Version and an MP3 copy will be created.

Note that you'll have now both versions of the song in your library, so you’ll have to do a little housekeeping.

Note that if you want to upgrade your previously purchased iTunes tracks to DRM free, you need to pay 30 cents per song. You can't pick and choose which tracks to upgrade. Start by going to the iTunes Store home page, and clicking on "Upgrade My Library" under the "Quick Links" heading. Once there, you'll see a list of all the songs and albums that are available for upgrading, with a price next to each. But the important number to look at is the price next to the buy button, since that's how much it'll cost to upgrade your library.

So if have an extensive music collection with many songs (i.e. 500 songs) purchased from iTunes and wanted to get them freed from DRM protection, you will have to pay USD150 for the upgrade. And in order to listen to them with your MP3 player or mobile phone music player, you still need a further step - convert the AAC music to MP3 one by one (as the steps show above). It not only messes your iTunes library up but also costs you a great deal of time and money. Therefore, if you really want to play the previously purchased music tracks from iTunes Store with MP3 players or mobile phone music players, you just need to get TuneClone Audio Converter to help to remove the iTunes DRM protection and convert the iTunes music to the popular MP3 format. Also, if you get iTunes Plus DRM-free music files and want to play them with the MP3 players or mobile phone music players incompatible with Apple AAC format, you can still use TuneClone to turn them into MP3 format, saving the time to create MP3 version for the songs one by one.

How to remove iTunes DRM from protected AAC M4P M4B

Are you annoyed by iTunes DRM? Do you want to remove it because you want to play the iTunes music on non-Apple MP3 players like PSP, Zune, Creative Zen, BlackBerry, PS3, iriver, Walkman, mobile phone MP3 player, etc., use it as background music in a home video, or anything else that DRM limits it to do? Many people know you can remove the DRM from iTunes music by simply burning the song to a CD, and ripping it back over, losing very little quality(if settings are correct):

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 encrypted iTunes 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.

And the method I am going to introduce does the same exact thing but you will not need a CD-RW disc, a CD ROM drive, or even need to burn anything! It's that simple. Let's show you how to perform this.

We are going to be using a program called TuneClone. TuneClone is basically a program that acts as a virtual CD drive that allows you "burn" MP3 from iTunes and "rip" it. TuneClone "lies" to your computer saying that you have a CD-RW drive that it will burn to (like Alchohol 120%). You can use this to move your library of M4P DRM protected music to the MP3 format that you can use on any player out there worth its salt. This is a useful tool for anyone looking to break their relationship with the iPod. The best part is that it maintains all of the music file's metadata. Below is the step by step tutorial that shows how it works:

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

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

2. 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 output files.

Note: Apart from MP3, TuneClone also allows you to convert iTunes M4P to WAV and unprotected WMA.
Tip: You can get the output protection removed music folder by clicking the Folder button after the whole process.

3. Make settings at iTunes(iTunes 8 )

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



After you have created the playlist ready to be burnt, click the Burn Disc in the bottom right of iTunes.

In the pop up window of Burn Settings, make the settings as highlighted below:



4. Start to burn

Click the Burn button to start burning.

After 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.

TuneClone V1.30 - remove DRM from iTunes M4P M4B WMA Napster using virtual CD drive

The newest version of TuneClone - TuneClone V1.30 - was released on December 15,2008!

TuneClone Audio Converter is a powerful yet easy to use DRM remover and music converter program for removing DRM from iTunes music, Windows Media Player music, RealPlayer music, WinAMP music, Napster music, Rhapsody music, etc., with the music metadata well preserved.



Unlike other media converters, TuneClone Audio Converter applies the virtual CD burning technology to remove the DRM. It generates a virtual CD-ROM drive, tricking your PC into believing that you are burning a CD. Therefore, the DRM is removed without wasting a CD.

TuneClone Audio Converter can be used to convert iTunes protected AAC (M4P), M4B, M4A, protected WMA to MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA. It removes the DRM from protected iTunes M4P or protected WMA so as to help you play the DRM-laden music on media players or MP3 players like Microsoft Zune, Sony PSP, BlackBerry, Creative Zune, iriver, SanDisk Sansa, Sony Walkman, Cell Phone(Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia N-series, Samsung Anycall, LG, etc.) Pocket PC, PDA and so on.

Key features of TuneClone V1.30: (from http://www.tuneclone.com)

1. Easy to install and easy to use via a simple user interface.

2. Remove DRM from purchased or protected music from iTunes, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, WinAMP, Napster, Rhapster, etc, using automatically generated virtual CD drive.

3. Convert DRM protected music to plain MP3 format for playback on all kinds of MP3 players or media players like Zune, PSP, BlackBerry, Creative Zen, iriver, Walkman, etc.

4. Remove DRM from purchased music files by applying the virtual CD burning technology, which adopts the maximum writing speed so that your music files can be converted at a very high speed.

5. Convert iTunes protected AAC (M4P), M4B and M4A to MP3, WAV and WMA.

6. Convert protected WMA (Windows Media Audio) to MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA.

7. Well Preserve ID3 tags for artist, album, title names, artworks, etc.

8. The converted songs will have no DRM restriction any more.

Availability, price and support

More information about TuneClone V1.30 is available at http://www.tuneclone.com/index.php. You can free download TuneClone V1.30 from http://www.tuneclone.com/tuneclone_setup.exe for a try.

The full version of TuneClone V1.30 costs USD34.95.

If you have questions about or show interest in TuneClone V1.30, please feel free to contact TuneClone support team via support@tuneclone.com.

Remove DRM from iTunes with TuneClone virtual CD burner

Basically, when you buy music from iTunes, it comes with a copyright protection called DRM. These DRM-protected songs are locked so that they only work with Apple MP3 players. That means that if you bought a Microsoft Zune, you cannot use iTunes music.

So, what is the solution? You have to burn a CD. When you do this, the DRM is removed (because the music is converted to a non-DRM-compatible media). After you burn the CD, you can rip it to your PC as an MP3 file which no longer has DRM.

Alternatively, you can use TuneClone (http://www.tuneclone.com/index.php).



TuneClone makes a virtual CD-ROM drive, tricking your PC into believing that you are burning a CD. Therefore, the DRM is removed without wasting a CD.

Here is a link to a tutorial using TuneClone and iTunes 8:
http://itunesm4ptomp3.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/convert-itunes8-music-to-mp3/

Remove iTunes DRM on Windows & Mac

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
Part 2. Remove DRM from iTunes music on Windows with TuneClone
Part 3. Remove DRM from iTunes music on Mac OS X with iMovie
Part 4. Remove DRM from iTunes music on Mac OS X with FairGame

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 or Windows Media Player 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.

TuneClone is fully compatible with Windows XP and Windows 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 TuneClone virtual CD-RW at iTunes.

Click menu "Edit", select menu item "Preferences...", and then select "Advanced Tab". In order to keep the music information about artist, title, etc., the "Include CD Text" option should be checked.
Note: If you are using iTunes 8.0 or above, please skip to this guide about how to remove DRM from iTunes 8 music.



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)

How to Convert iTunes M4P to MP3 WMA WAV for Windows Movie Maker

Many people are fond of making slideshows on their Windows Movie Maker, however, it won't let them import any purchased music as it is DRM protected. Since iTunes store tops the music retailer in the world, the following tutorial focuses on how to convert purchased iTunes M4P music to MP3, WAV or unprotected WMA so as to import it to Windows Movie Maker project as background music. The tutorial is composed of the following three parts:

Part 1. Something about Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker is a totally free program that comes with Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional, and Windows Vista. Below are the audio/video formats accepted by Windows Movie Maker:

Video files: .asf, .avi, .wmv
Movie files: MPEG1, .mpeg, .mpg, .mlv, .mp2
Audio files: .wav, .snd, .au, .aif, .aifc, .aiff
Windows media files: .asf, .wm, .wma, .wmv
MP3 format audio: .mp3



Part 2. Remove DRM from M4P music

The songs you purchased from iTunes store are under DRM protection. You cannot directly import them to your Windows Movie Maker project. 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:

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.

The steps are very simple indeed. Yet, I'd like to introduce a practical application called TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter. It applies the virtual CD burning technology so that there is no need to use real disc. You can use it to move your library of M4P DRM protected music to the MP3 format that you can use on any player out there worth its salt. This is a useful tool for anyone looking to break their relationship with the iPod. The best part is that it maintains all of the music file's metadata. Wordpress has a little tutorial showing how to remove DRM from iTunes M4P music with TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter.



Part 3. Add the output DRM-free music to Windows Movie Maker

After you get the output DRM-free music by adopting either the disc burning/ripping method or virtual CD burning method discussed in Part 2, now you can begin to import it into your Windows Movie Maker project.

Click on "File". Then click on "Import". A window will appear. In the window, navigate to the sound or music file you want to add to your movie. Then double click on the file. You'll see the icon for the file in your Windows Movie Maker "Collections". Click on the icon and drag it on to the timeline to the part of the video you want the sound or music to play.

How to share iTunes DRM music with your Facebook friends

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

Facebook offers an application called "Twist me!" to help Facebook fans share music with their friends. Below is the brief steps:

First, visit Facebook website and add the "Twist me!" Application to your profile.

Second, click "Twist me!" from the "Applications" list and click "Next" to import the music files from your local PC. Of course, you can also import videos and images. The supporting formats are various. Here I focus on music. You can add a maximum of 8 audio files here. What's more, you can leave a message to your friends accompanying the music files.

Third, choose your friends to send the music files to.

It is very easy to share music files with your Facebook friends. However, we always have very classic music on our iTunes accounts and are willing to share them with our Facebook friends. Here comes the headache! The music files under the iTune account are DRM protected. So how to remove the DRM from the protected iTunes music files and output them as Facebook supported unprotected music files?

The program called TuneClone I talked about in my previous post How to convert iTunes M4P to MP3 with TuneClone comes to the rescue. It can be used to batch convert DRM protected iTunes M4P music to MP3. This program automatically generates a virtual CD burner for converting the music files. Compared with using real disc, it is much faster. Moreover, this cute program can keep the information about artist, title and album intact. It is a very good application for iTunes users who have hundreds of M4P files ready to be converted and DRM removed.