How to Transfer iTunes M4P M4A AAC to Zune HD?

This guide is going to show you how to remove DRM protection from iTunes music, convert DRM protected iTunes M4P to MP3, M4A to MP3, AAC to MP3 and transfer iTunes music to Zune HD. First, let’s take a look at the video/audio formats Zune HD accepts:

Video Support:
WMV
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video
H.264 video
DVR-MS

Audio Support:
Windows Media? Audio Standard (WMA) (.wma)
WMA Lossless
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov): .m4a and .m4b files without FairPlay DRM
MP3 (.mp3)

So, if you want to play DRM protected iTunes M4P, M4A, AAC music on your Zune HD, you just need to use TuneClone Audio Converter to convert the iTunes music to MP3 format and then transfer the output MP3 to your Zune HD.

Now let’s take a look at how it performs to convert the iTunes music to MP3 format for Zune HD using TuneClone Audio Converter:

1. Create a new playlist in iTunes.

2. Add the iTunes songs to the playlist.

3. Launch TuneClone Audio Converter. Click the “Settings” tab. In the pop-up window, you can specify output folder, output file name format, output format, etc for the output files. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed at the bottom left corner of the interface.

4. Switch to iTunes. In iTunes, select the playlist you just created and 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.

7. After you get the output music files, connect your Zune HD to computer via the USB cable, drag and drop the converted MP3 files to the Zune Software, then you can sync the iTunes M4P music to Zune HD with the help of Zune Software at ease.

Extracted from http://www.tuneclone.com/transfer-itunes-music-to-zune-hd.php

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.

Transfer iTunes M4P music to PSP-3000

Months ago, I posted an article about how to convert iTunes M4P to PSP MP3. Actually, you can also follow that post to help you transfer iTunes M4P music to PSP-3000. However, it is necessary to know something about PSP-3000 first:

The PSP-3000 is the redesigned version of Sony’s popular PlayStation Portable. The first PSP-1000 was followed by the PSP Slim&Lite (PSP-2000) announced during E3 2007. The PSP-3000 is an even slicker version of the PSP Slim&Lite, it was announced during Sony’s Leipzig Games Convention press conference.

The PSP-3000 is primarily a gaming device, but it’s got some notable media functionality as well. With the 4.3-inch LCD wide screen delivering better color reproduction, and the external stereo speakers producing decent volume for music and even movies, never will it be overladen that we call it “Multimedia Station Portable”.

Audio playback: The PSP-3000 doubles as a decent music player, with the ability to play DRM-free MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, and AC3 files, along with support for album art. Shuffle and repeat modes are supported, along with a visualizer function.

Video playback: The PSP 3000 can play videos from a variety of sources, such as MPEG4, H.264-AVC, (up to 720×480), AVI, and 3GP.

Transfer DRM protected iTunes M4P music to BlackBerry Storm

“With a unique touch screen and cutting-edge multimedia capabilities, the BlackBerry Storm smartphone makes a great impression as you travel across town or to almost any corner of the world.”

One of the great new features I am starting to enjoy on my BlackBerry Storm is the ability for it to play multimedia files and specifically audio (music).

First let’s take a look at the video and audio formats supported by BlackBerry Storm:

Video format support: MPEG4 H.263, MPEG4 Part 2 Simple Profile, H.264, WMV
Audio format support: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, WMA ProPlus

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 have a BlackBerry Storm, 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. 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://www.tuneclone.com/itunes8-m4p-to-mp3.php

After you get the output MP3 files, you can now begin to transfer them to your BlackBerry Storm:

1. Connect your BlackBerry to you computer via the USB cable.
2. If you have properly enabled your Blackberry as a Mass Storage Device, your Blackberry’s microSD card will show as a removable drive on your computer.
3. Double click on the Blackberry folder.
4. Double click on the music folder.
5. Copy your music files to your BlackBerry.
6. Disconnect your Blackberry from the USB cable and go to the “Multimedia” icon on you Blackberry. You need to disconnect when you use the Mass Storage device method as it disables direct access from the BlackBerry when connected to the PC via the USB cable.
7. Click on the Music icon.
8. Click on the Media Card folder.
9. Select your Music folder.
10. Select your Song.
11. Play and enjoy.

Done.

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’.

5 Ways to Enjoy Your Music Files

OK, say you’ve got one thousand of your favorite MP3 songs sitting in your hard disk. What’s the best way to enjoy those files? Most of us probably will use the Windows Media Player to listen to those files. But did you know there are other more innovative and interesting ways playback MP3, WMA and WAV files?

Let’s take a look at the five methods.

Use MusicMatch Jukebox

If you think most that most PC programs for playing digital music look like the built-in Windows Media Player, think again. There are programs out there that go far beyond the Windows Media Player in functionality. One great example is Musicmatch Jukebox from Musicmatch. Musicmatch Jukebox is quite simply the world’s best digital music player. It supports playback of various music formats like audio CDs, MP3s, Internet streams, WMAs, WAV files and more. You also get CD burning, music ripping and music organizing capabilities. The Plus version even allows you to automatically tag your music files with detailed info and album art!

Use a Portable MP3 Player

Portable music players like the Apple iPod, Creative Nomad and Rio Nitrus have taken the market by storm. You don’t have to be confined to your desktop PC or laptop to listen to digital music! The portable music players can allow you to take your music anywhere. The compact size of MP3 and WMA music formats means that you can literally take a jukebox of thousands of songs whereever you go! You may also want to check out my review of the top 5 portable music players here. There are also other portable music options, including handphones with MP3 support.

Note: If you want to listen to iTunes music collection using a portable MP3 player, you need to refer to this tutorial about how to convert DRM protected iTunes M4P to MP3. Or if you want to listen to DRM protected WMA music files with iPod or other music players, you can follow this guide showing how to convert DRM protected WMA to MP3 for iPod.

Use a PDA

The latest Pocket PC or Palm-based personal digital assistants (PDAs) can also act as music players. Pop in a large memory card (e.g. 64 MB) and you can store many MP3 or WMA files. Then hook up a headphone, launch the music software in the PDA and you’re good to go! I personally own a HP iPaq 2210 which effectively keeps track of my appointments and doubles up as a music player.

Use Your Car Stereo

This is my favorite way of listening to my MP3 collection. I recently bought a car stereo that can playback native MP3 songs. This means that I can pop in a data CD containing hundreds of MP3 files and the car stereo will play them! This does not work on conventional car stereos. If you own a conventional car stereo, but still want to listen to your MP3 songs, one way is to create an audio CD from your music files first. The car stereo will then have no problem interpreting and playing back the audio CD. Of course, in this case, you’ll be limited to about 14 to 17 tracks of music only.

Use Your Home Stereo

If you’re a music lover, you probably already have a home stereo. Use it to listen to your MP3 music files! However, take note that Like car stereos, conventional home stereos will not be able to play back native MP3 songs. You will need a newer home stereo set with MP3 playback capability. New models from Kenwood, Panasonic, Pioneer and Sony usually have MP3 support.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many ways to enjoy that digital music collection of yours. My favorite methods of listening to digital audio files is via a portable music player or the car stereo. Of course, you may have your own preference – some people like to listen to music off their desktop PC or laptop. Decide which method(s) is suitable for you and go for it!

About The Author

Gary Hendricks – http://digital-music-guide.com
gary_hendricks@digital-music-guide.com

Difference among Audio CD, MP3 CD and Data CD

Audio CD

An audio CD is similar to a music CD that you buy online or in a store: it can be played on any standard CD player (such as a CD deck or a portable CD player). Music is stored on Audio CDs as uncompressed (essentially WAV) digitally encoded files. When compressed audio files (RealAudio, MP3, etc.) are transferred to an audio CD, RealPlayer makes temporary uncompressed copies of each song before the CD is burned. This increases the time it takes to create the CD and requires up to 700Mb of free hard drive space.

Audio CDs can confidently be burned only onto CD-R media. While some CD players can read CD-RWs, not all are capable. You can use CD-RW with RealPlayer, but you should check with the manufacturer of your home or car CD player before burning CD-RWs for use in any of these devices.

MP3 CD

An MP3 CD is a specialized type of data disc. All files copied to an MP3 disc will be, if needed, converted to MP3 format. Like the Data CD, files can be organized into folders. Media files on the MP3 CD can be accompanied by M3U formatted playlists, which are used by some MP3 players to play the MP3 files on the disc. When placed in an MP3 compatible CD or DVD player, MP3 discs are played like any audio CD.

MP3 Discs can be created using CD-R or CD-RW media.

Data CD

A data disc is similar to a CD or DVD that is used to install software on your computer: it holds just data/files. Use this feature to backup or store your media files. RealPlayer compatible files (RealAudio, MP3, etc.) from your local drives can be burned directly onto a data CD. During burning, the files are copied to the disc just as they are, without conversion or modification. RealPlayer can also organize the files in folders based on artist and album. (See CD Burner details.)

Data discs may be created using CD-R or CD-RW media.

Burn iTunes playlist for more than 7 times

“iTunes DRM-protected music includes audio with a bit rate of 128 kbps and allows users to transfer songs and videos to up to five computers, burn seven copies of the same playlist to CD, and sync to an unlimited number of iPods.”

By “burn seven copies of the same playlist to CD”, Apple means you can only burn the same playlist to CD for seven times. However, it is very easy to break the limit if you really need to.

Like, if you want to burn a playlist to an audio CD, however, the playlist has been burnt for seven times on different occasions, you may perform like this:

Create a new playlist;
Add all the music from the original playlist (reaching the burning limit of seven times) to the new playlist; Add or delete one or two songs to the new playlist to make it just a little bit different from the original playlist;
click Burn;
Done.

A little bit farfetched. Yet, if you don’t mind the minor change of the playlist, it does sound like a good idea, don’t you think so?

Also, you can do in the same way when you are burning iTunes music using TuneClone virtual CD burner, which I discussed many a time in this blog.

Here is another tutorial post about how to convert DRM protected iTunes M4P music to MP3 with the burning-and-ripping method and that of using TuneClone virtual CD burner. You can take it for your reference if you are interested.

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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You may also have interest in:

How to convert wma playlist to mp3 for iPod
How to convert iTunes 8 protected AAC(M4P) music to MP3 with TuneClone
How to strip DRM off iTunes music on Windows and Mac
How to virtually burn WinAMP music to MP3 WMA WAV
How to virtually burn RM music to MP3 with RealPlayer
How to virtually burn WMA playlist to MP3 with Windows Media Player

iTunes Playlist to PS3?

I have searched but want to make this clear. Can I play iTunes (that I have stored on my computer) on my PS3. I know I can’t just hook up my iPod to it or stream from my PC. I read something about transferring music to USB and then put that flash drive in the PS3, will this work? I want to play my iTunes on my home theater but I have no other way than to play it through my PS3. I have a yamaha 5990 receiver and it is not iPod compatible. Any options here? Thanks in advance.

Well, I think the main problem here is that the iTunes music is DRM encrypted. I have already posted several tutorials to my blog, like transfer iTunes music to Zune, put iTunes playlist to PSP, import iTunes music to Windows Movie Maker project, etc. I believe the same is the principle: strip the DRM off and convert the protected iTunes music to some widely-accepted format like MP3.  All you need to know is how to transfer regular music to the mobile device or software.