M4P converter – convert protected AAC to MP3 WAV WMA

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.
2. Burn your playlist to make an audio CD. You cannot select the “MP3 CD” option since it requires the DRM protected iTunes music files be converted to unprotected MP3, WMA or WAV 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 as MP3, WMA or WAV 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 M4P Converter. TuneClone M4P Converter 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. Create a new playlist in iTunes.
2. Add the protected songs to your playlist. Since iTunes burns the protected music with TuneClone virtual CD drive, there is no limit as to music length so long as you have enough hard drive space.
3. Launch TuneClone M4P Converter. Click the “Settings” tab. In the pop-up window, you can specify output folder, output file name format, output format (WMA, MP3, WAV), 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. 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.

 

Content Source: M4P converter – convert protected AAC to MP3 WAV WMA – Bukisa.com

How to convert DRM Nokia WMA music tracks to MP3

This guide is going to show you how to convert DRM protected WMA music tracks purchased from Nokia Music Store to (DRM free) MP3 format for sync to a lot more mobile players incompatible with Nokia Music formats with TuneClone Audio Converter. First, let’s take a look at something about music downloaded from Nokia Music Store:

All downloads from Nokia Music Store use DRM licences in the Windows Media format(WMDRM). They allow you to play a protected track and transfer it to a regsitered Comes With Music device an unlimited number of times. However, to burn tracks to a CD or to transfer tracks to an unregistered compatible mobile device, you must buy the tracks from Nokia Music Store.

The audio file format of the tracks in Nokia Music Store is Windows Media Auido (WMA) with a bit rate of 128 kb/s or 192 kb/s. The tracks are protected by Windows Media Digital Rights Management (WMDRM). Tracks encoded at 192 kb/s are bigger files than those encoded at 128 kb/s, but of better quality.

Now let’s take a look at how it performs to convert WMDRM Nokia music to MP3 using TuneClone Audio Converter:

Step 1. Make settings in TuneClone

Download and install TuneClone Audio Converter from http://www.tuneclone.com. Launch the program. In the TuneClone interface, make sure TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed (at the bottom left corner). Click the “Settings” button. In the pop-up dialog, you can specify the output path, output filename format, output file format (choose MP3), etc for the output files.

Step 2. Burn “Audio CD” in Nokia Music

Launch the Nokia Music program.

Drag and drop the music files you want to convert to MP3 to the TuneClone virtual CD drive icon (in H) until the total length goes to 79 mins.

Click the “Burn CD” button to start the burning process. After the burning gets started, TuneClone will fetch the music from the “virtual CD” (in a temp folder) and encode it to MP3 format.

 

After the whole burning and encoding progress, you can get the output files by clicking the “Folder” button in the TuneClone interface. Now you can possess the music without any restriction.

The drawback is that, after the conversion, the ID3 tags info for the music tracks has been missing. I have to retrieve the information by dragging and dropping the original music to the TuneClone “Track Info” panel one by one.

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 Plus: Everything You Need to Know

By Nate Lanxon
Source from http://crave.cnet.co.uk/

Apple’s iTunes Store is almost completely DRM-free, and will be entirely DRM-free from spring. This means files downloaded from iTunes work on heaps of devices that aren’t from Apple. What better way to celebrate the final bullet to the living corpse of copy protection than by reading everything you need to know about iTunes Plus? There isn’t one. And anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar, and not your friend.

Be warned: your account information is stored in every file
Although iTunes Plus files feature no copy protection, files downloaded still contain the email address you have registered with iTunes. So although files can physically be shared with, and played by, friends and family, any of your purchases that end up on file-sharing networks, for example, can be traced back to you.

If you’re interested in an easy way to check your own files, find an iTunes Plus file on your computer. Then choose to open it with a text editor (Windows Notepad works fine). It’ll take a while to open and will appear to be full of nonsense text, but if you choose the ‘Find’ option and type in the email address you have registered with the iTunes Store, you’ll find that your DRM-free music is not personal information-free.

iTunes Plus files aren’t MP3s
iTunes uses a format called AAC, which is a more modern alternative to MP3, with the file extension ‘.m4a’. Many players support this format, however, and you can create MP3 versions of the files within iTunes if you want to, so don’t worry — it’s like petrol versus diesel in the car world, except your player’s engine won’t break if you put the wrong format in.

Players that support iTunes Plus
Unlike the old downloads from iTunes, the new files are supported on a range of devices. Devices that support AAC include the Creative Zen and Zen X-Fi, the Sony A series, S series and E series, the Archos 605 WiFi and Archos 5 (with optional plug-in), the Sony PSP and PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Wii, Sony Ericsson’s Walkman phones and Nokia’s XpressMusic handsets, the Logitech Squeezebox systems and the Sonos streamers.

Upgrading your library to iTunes Plus
As all your previous iTunes downloads are now available in DRM-free format (or will be within the next few weeks), Apple lets you upgrade them — at a cost. It’ll cost you 20p per song, or 25 per cent of the cost of the album, which is usually £2 a pop.

CNET UK’s editor Jason Jenkins had a smashing moan about this the other day. But not just about the cost: Apple doesn’t let you choose which songs you upgrade — you either upgrade it all, or not at all.

If you do upgrade, however, your new DRM-free songs have twice the audio quality of the originals, and replace the originals within your library. Any playlists they appear in, or any ratings you’ve given them, remain unchanged. Whatever you think about the cost issue, you can’t argue with the simplicity.

The final word
Eighty per cent of music in the iTunes catalogue is DRM-free already, and you’ll probably find that very little of what you search for remains in the old DRMed format. At the time of writing, 90 out of the top 100 songs on iTunes are in iTunes Plus format.

You can tell which songs are in iTunes Plus by looking for a little plus symbol next to each song in search listings. Or look above the ‘Buy Album’ button at the top of an album’s page for the words ‘iTunes Plus’.

How to transfer Napster music playlist to iTunes playlist for iPod

Music purchased from Napster is under DRM protection, which stops customers from playing the downloaded music with other incompatible devices like Apple iPod and Microsoft Zune. If you don’t continue to pay, you won’t keep the music when the subscription expires. As we all know, iPod is one of the most popular and successful MP3 players. iPod owners can purchase various music songs from iTunes Store and listen to them with their iPods. However, if you prefer Napster and find some songs in Napster that are unavailable in iTunes store, yet you do want to enjoy these songs witn your new iPod, you are meeting the headache of Naspter being incompatible with iPod. So the following tutorial should be the solution.

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The tools you will need:

    TuneClone Audio Converter
    Napster Software
    iPod
    iTunes Library

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1. Make settings in TuneClone Audio Converter

Download TuneClone (fully compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista) from http://www.tuneclone.com/index.php and install it. After launching TuneClone, click the “Settings” button. In the pop-up dialog of “Options”, you can specify the “Output Folder”, “Output Filenames”, “Output Format” (here we choose MP3), etc. for the output files.

Tip: You can get the output protection removed MP3 music folder by clicking the “Folder” button after the whole process.

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2. Create a new playlist in Napster

Under “My Playlist”, click the “New Playlist” button to create a new playlist. Drag and drop to the playlist the music you are going to burn from your Napster Library.

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3. Make CD burning settings in Napster

Click “Tools”, and select “Preference…” from the drop-down list. In the left panel of “Options”, navigate to “CD Options”. In the right panel of “CD Options”, choose TuneClone virtual CD drive as the preferred CD burner.

Note: Please tick “Burn CD Text” to preserve the metadata of the music.

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4. Start to burn

Click the “Burn Disk” button to start the burning and encoding process.

After the burning gets started, TuneClone will automatically convert the music file to MP3. 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.

After you get the output MP3 files converted from the Napster music playlist in your Napster, you can now begin to transfer the MP3 files to your iPod with the sync of iTunes.

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