How to convert your itunes m4a to mp3?
Itunes was really really starting to piss me of when I tried to load some mp3’s into my mixing software and it wouldn’t read them due to its DRM protection…par! So I set about sorting this issue out I knew there must be something out there and this was the best solution I found and its legal… I think?!
The key component of getting your tracks to mp3 is downloading some software called TuneClone which you can get here($35 = £20) bargin imo. Basically how it works is that it will create a virtual cd drive, you then tell Itunes to burn the virtual cd of tracks, it then “burns” them to the virtual drive and converts them to mp3 all sorted.
- Get yourself a copy of TuneClone download and install
- Launch TuneClone click settings and adjust the output file names to which ever format your prefer, adjust the bitrate click ok.
- Crack open Itunes create a playlist containing all the tracks you want to convert, make sure all the check boxes are ticked
- Click Burn to Disc button (bottom right – on Itunes 8 )
- Select the virtual drive from the cd drive dropdown make sure you check audio cd and include CD Text finally click Burn
- Itunes and TuneClone will do their thing and you will have mp3 versions of your tracks to use anywhere
Once Itunes stops its burn process TuneClone kicks in and begins the conversion to mp3 once this is done the process is complete. The other thing to note is that if Tuneclone doesn’t pick up the track names and artists you can ‘tag’ the track in the TuneClone library by dragging the file from Itunes to Tuneclone where it says “Track Info”.
The result is a happy me as I tried various places Amazon, Napster, 7digital and Itunes was far far superior music catolgue wise. It had everything I was after and it gets to a point where buying cd’s is silly as you have most of the tracks so all you want is to add the odd track here and there. Now I have mp3 versions it just makes life a hell of alot easier.
If you look at it like this £20 gets you 25 songs which you want to listen to with no fillers like most albums…downloading makes sense?
Source from: http://www.richard-bell.co.uk/2009/06/23/how-to-convert-your-itunes-m4a-to-mp3/
Put iTunes music onto Limewire Napster Rhapsody
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 Rhapsody, Napster, Limewire for syncing to a lot more mobile players.
Why Put iTunes M4P music onto Rhapsody Napster Limewire?
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 Rhapsody, Napster, Limewire, either. In such case, the option is to burn those tracks to an audio CD and then rip them 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 Limewire, Rhapsody or Napster.
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 Limewire/Rhapsody/Napster?
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 Rhapsody, Napster, Limewire.
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 Rhapsody/Napster/Limewire with TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter
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.
Different ways of adding music to iTunes for iPod and iPhone
The following article focuses on different ways of listening to music on iPod and iPhone. To enjoy music on iPod and iPhone, you first need to get the music in iPod/iPhone format onto iTunes library and then sync the music to your iPod/iPhone.
1. Buy music from iTunes Store for iPod/iPhone
To find and buy music from the iTunes Store, just click on the “iTunes Store” link under “Store” in the left column of iTunes. Once in, you’re greeted with the iTunes Store interface, with links on the left-hand side that take you to Music, Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos, Audiobooks, and Podcasts. After you’ve chosen a song or album to buy, just click on the “Buy Song” or “Buy Album” button for that selection.
2. Import your CDs into iTunes for iPod/iPhone
If you own a few CDs, you can import them into iTunes for your iPod/iPhone. Since you’ve already spent money on this music, there’s no reason why you should have to buy it all over again just to get the songs into iTunes. Apple made it simple to rip a CD to your library.
By default, iTunes rips songs to AAC format, and although AAC is a very high-quality format, it isn’t as widely-supported as the ubiquitous MP3 format, which enjoys support from virtually every digital music player known to man, including iPod and iPhone. To ensure greater portability of your music (and prevent you from feeling locked into one product just because you’ve ripped all your music in one format), I suggest ripping your CDs as MP3s. To do so, go to Edit -> Preferences. In the General tab, click the Import Settings… button. In the pop up dialog window of Import Settings, select MP3 Encoder from the Import Using dropdown menu and Higher Quality (192 kbps) from the Setting dropdown.
There are many other subscription music services you may already be subscribed to, like Rhapsody, Napster, and Zune Marketplace, which let you buy or rent tracks. But the songs that come from these stores use a Digital Rights Management (DRM) scheme that is incompatible with iTunes and the iPod/iPhone. In other words, these songs are protected from being played in software and hardware music players that don’t support their particular standard (just like non-iPod music players can’t play most music from the iTunes Music Store). There is software tool called TuneClone Audio Converter that claims to be able to remove DRM from Rhapsody, Napster and Zune Marketplace and convert the DRM protected music to MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA with a virtual CD drive. So if you want to transfer your Rhapsody/Napster/Zune music to iTunes for your iPod/iPhone, you mnay download this piece of software to help you get the music DRM removed and converted to MP3 for a try.
However, the online digital music store eMusic sells DRM-free MP3s, and there are many websites where you can download free and legal MP3s that don’t contain DRM and can be imported into the iPhone easily.
3. Import MP3s into iTunes for iPod/iPhone
Once you’ve downloaded MP3s onto your computer, it’s easy to import them into iTunes. First make a new playlist by going to the “File” menu and clicking “New Playlist” and naming it anything you like. Select that playlist in iTunes, then drag your MP3s from your hard drive into the right-hand pane. iTunes will start importing your music and populating the playlist with songs. After it’s done, you’re free to play back the songs or sync them to your iPod/iPhone just like all the rest of your library.
4. Import WMAs into iTunes for iPod/iPhone
Importing unprotected WMA files is just like importing MP3 files, but requires one additional step. With WMA files, iTunes will actually transcode the songs and change the format from WMA to whatever default audio encoder you’ve set in the iTunes Preferences. It’s not necessary to know the difference between WMAs, MP3s, and AACs, but you should know that when you import WMAs, your original files are untouched and a new file is created.
Note: For importing DRM protected WMA files into iTunes, you will need to remove the DRM first. I’ve found TuneClone Audio Converter can also be used to convert DRM protected WMA to MP3. There’s a tutorial on its website that details how to convert protected WMA to MP3 for iPod. I’ve followed it step by step to have a try. It worked great as a whole except that it didn’t preserve the music metadata very well though the tutorial offered a reluctant solution.
How to put iTunes M4P music 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.
Source from http://www.tuneclone.com/how-to-put-itunes-m4p-to-windows-media-player.php
Authorized reproduce
How to Remove DRM from WMA – Is it Legal and Worth the Effort?
Technically, it’s illegal to remove DRM from WMA protected music. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is part of the music industry’s effort to curb piracy. There are legitimate reasons for removing it, but first understand DRM can not be removed from file sharing network downloads. Most tracks can be legally copied 3 to 5 times, and this has been exceeded long before they appear on a peer-to-peer network. You must have either purchased the music or have unrestricted free music downloads.
There is no easy way to remove DRM, but it can be removed with some effort and know-how. The best advice is to only download music in the format you need, and that you have the right to copy to an mp3 player, CD or other device. It’s also important to determine that the player will recognize and play the DRM protected WMA track.
What if I Really Like the songs and Want to convert them?
Let’s say you’ve already downloaded music and need to convert to another audio codec. The common conversion method is to burn the tracks on a CD, then rip them in the desired codec’s format. Even this requires special ripping software and numerous steps because the DRM is still embedded in the tracks. And because codecs like WMA, mp3, OGG, AAC, etc. are lossy formats, the sound quality will be degraded.
Lossy formats selectively discard sounds the human ear can’t hear to make the file smaller. But each format removes slightly different sounds. For example, converting a track using a WMA to mp3 converter is now missing the sounds that both codecs have deleted.
There are other ways to remove DRM and convert WMA to mp3, but they require numerous steps and more software – and they’re not for the technically challenged. Free WMA to mp3 conversion software and detailed instructions are available on the Internet.
By W R Kirk via link
Related post: How to strip DRM off iTunes music on Windows and Mac
How to play iTunes DRM protected AAC/M4P music on Creative Zen
Zen is the first Creative player that supports unprotected AAC format, so you can enjoy up to 8,0001 of your favorite CD tracks that you’ve ripped through iTunes software. Zen also supports iTunes Plus tracks from the iTunes store, in addition to MP3 and WMA music tracks. It is also compatible with music subscription services such as Napster To Go and Rhapsody.
However, as the music purchased from iTunes Store is encrypted with DRM, you cannot directly play it on your Creative Zen. iTunes allows you to burn the protected AAC(M4P) 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.
2. Burn your playlist 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 or Windows Media Player to import the music tracks on the burned disc as MP3 or WMA files.
Or you can get some software to help you. I use TuneClone M4P Converter to do this. Though not free, it is very well worth a try. It generates a virtual CD drive to help to remove DRM from iTunes and convert the M4P music to MP3 or unprotected WMA format, which is compatible with your Creative Zen.
Here is the tutorial as to how to use TuneClone to convert iTunes M4P to MP3.
iTunes goes DRM free, adds variable pricing
Three price points: 59p, 79p and 99p at 256kbps AAC DRM-free
Apple on Tuesday followed through on its promise to remove all digital rights management (DRM) from music sold on the iTunes Store. The company also unveiled tiered pricing for individual songs and albums.
How to Convert iTunes to MP3
You might have experienced being unable to play songs you bought from the iTunes Store without using your iPods. At times that can be really frustrating seeing that you bought the music and you feel like you have the right to listen to it using other players. The solution is to convert iTunes to MP3 format, which may not be as easy at it looks.
The trouble with the steps to convert iTunes to MP3 is due to the fact that the music you downloaded from the iTunes Store will be encrypted. This simply means that the music is protected from song duplication and piracy. These songs are classified as DRM protected, which simply means they could only be played a specific computer or type of media player.
It is also interesting to note that Apple continues to have a tight control over the encryption used in iTunes. It is safeguarded to the point that no other online music store can sell music with the same encryption. To the consumer, this simply means you can only get their music from them and play it on their player or software. However, if you are able to convert iTunes to MP3, which is a format that is open to all, then you can listen to the music you bought from them on a player of your own choosing.
The first method to convert iTunes to MP3 is safe and risk free, which is burning your music to a disk, while the second one, which entails using a music file conversion program, might become a bit messy.
If you opt to use a file converting program, you run the risk of corrupting your files. This may be the fastest and the easiest way to convert iTunes to MP3 but you run the risk of corrupting files. Your other option is to burn your songs to a disk then rip the songs from the disk to into MP3. You may use a burning software if that you like or that you’re familiar with.
Popular CD burning software like Roxio or Nero can help you to convert iTunes to MP3. Grab a blank CD and put it in then burn the songs from iTunes into a regular CD format. Once all the songs have been burned into a CD, you now have your songs in open format. The next step to convert iTunes to MP3 using this method is to rip the music from off the CD into MP3.
You might think that this procedure is either laborious or time consuming since it will take some time to burn your songs into a CD. Another thing you should think about is the fact that you can fit 18 songs at the most to one CD. This will mean that if you want to convert more songs, you will have to do the same steps over and over.
If ever you don’t want to use a third-party burning software then you can just use the CD burning feature in iTunes. This is an alternative method to convert iTunes to MP3 without using another software. Before you start burning your music, you should set iTunes to burn using your CD burner. Select your CD burner on the preferences menu.
Those who don’t have a CD burner on their computer will have to use a virtual burner software like TuneClone. All you have to do to convert iTunes to MP3 is to create a new playlist in iTunes, which includes all the songs you want to convert. After making your playlist then burn your music to a disk in iTunes. If you used a virtual burner, obviously you don’t have to rip the music since it’s already on your hard drive.
These are your options if you want to convert your iTunes music into open music formats like MP3. Some of your options are a bit risky while other options are safe but sometimes are time consuming.
About the Author
Will Spencer is a computer expert and software reviewer who has written many articles such as Convert iTunes to MP3 Info and Converting iTunes to MP3 for Symatech and Rolo web sites. Visit How to Convert iTunes to MP3.
DRM free coming to Nokia
Mobile Today are on a roll today when it comes to Nokia News, and this news will have music lovers jumping for joy.
The news is that Nokia have agreed to remove the DRM locking from their music store in the next few months. The existing setup means once you have purchased a track you can listen to is on a Nokia phone, but just 1 phone so if you upgrade or change you are stuck!.
By removing DRM you can now share your music over many Nokia devices which is a much better idea and is needed as Vodafone recently announced they were removing DRM from their music store,
Mobile Today have posted
The manufacturer does not currently allow tracks bought from its music store to be transferred between handsets, frustrating users who upgrade their phones.
The removal of Digital Rights Management (DRM) has been secured after negotiations with record labels.
Adam Mirabella, director of global digital music retail for Nokia, said to Channel News Asia: ‘We have dialogues going with all of our partners and DRM-free is also on the roadmap for the future integration of Comes With Music.’
The news follows Vodafone’s recent announcement that its users can now download DRM-free tracks from its music service.
How to transfer iTunes M4P and iTunes Plus to PSP 3000
Apart from a great game player, the PSP-3000 is also a very good entertainment device which can be used for playing music. Suppose you’ve purchased a lot of songs from iTunes Store and are trying to figure out how to transfer them to your PSP-3000. You copy and paste the songs to the PSP music folder, however, the PSP doesn’t recognize them as music at all. What’s wrong? This article comes to the rescue! It is composed of the following parts:
Part 1. How to put iTunes DRM music to PSP-3000
As we know, the majority of music from iTunes Store goes DRM free (iTunes Plus). However, as long as you are not a new iTunes user, you are likely to have in your iTunes Library some songs which are DRM protected. You have to pay 30 cents per songs in order to upgrade them to DRM free. It’s simple mathematics. For 500 songs to upgrade to DRM free, you need to pay USD150 = 500 X 0.3.
To save money, the easiest way is to burn the music to an “Audio CD” and then rip it back to Windows Media Player or a similar program as MP3 music.
Or you can turn to some software for help. I always use TuneClone M4P Converter to help me convert iTunes music to MP3, ready to transfer to my new PSP-3000. The steps are quite simple:
1. Download and install TuneClone M4P Converter.
2. In TuneClone, click the “Settings” button and choose “MP3″ as the output format.
3. In iTunes, create a new playlist and add to it the iTunes music you are going to put onto your PSP.
4. Click “Burn Disc” button. In the pop-up dialog of “Burn Settings”, select TuneClone virtual CD drive as the “CD Burner”, choose “Audio CD” from the “Disc Format” checkboxes and tick “Include CD Text” option (to preserve music metadata).
5. Start burning.
Part 2. How to put iTunes DRM free (iTunes Plus) music to PSP-3000
To put iTunes Plus music to your PSP-3000, launch your iTunes and then:
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: If you want to skip the trouble of converting AAC music to MP3 one by one, you can still use TuneClone M4P Converter to help you transfer the iTunes Plus music to your PSP-3000. If you have both iTunes DRM music and iTunes Plus music in your Library, it is recommended that you get TuneClone to batch convert the music for your PSP.
