9 posts tagged “itunes to mp3”

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 Zune, PSP, BlackBerry, 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 format. After this you will be able to transfer them to Zune, PSP, BlackBerry.

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. Below is the detailed steps:

Step 1. Create a new playlist in iTunes and add the M4P songs to the playlist.

Step 2. Download and install TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter. Run it. In the main interface, click the "Settings" button. In the pop up window, you can choose the output folder, output file name format, output format (choose MP3 here), etc for the output files.

Step 3. Back to iTunes. Click the "Burn Disc" button. 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. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed in the bottom left corner of the TuneClone interface.

Step 4. 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.

P.S. Burn and Rip iTunes M4P to MP3 for Zune PSP BlackBerry

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 Zune, PSP, BlackBerry.

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.

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.

The music files you purchased from iTunes store are under DRM protection. You cannot play them on your own mobile devices other than iPod and iPhone. You cannot convert the DRM protected music files to MP3 or WMA directly with iTunes media player, either. 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. If you have only a few music files, you can use the method below:

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.
4. Copy the MP3 files to media players such as cell phone, Zune, BlackBerry, PSP, Creative Zen, etc. and enjoy them. These four steps seem very simple, however, it is a time consuming process if you have a library of music files ready to be converted. Moreover, the information of the music files like title, artist and album will be lost after burning and ripping back to MP3 files.

TuneClone is the software you are looking for if you have a big collection of iTunes music files to be converted. It automatically generates a virtual CD burner and simulates the burning and ripping process. All you need to do is install TuneClone and then burn your playlist to TuneClone virtual CD burner. And TuneClone will directly convert the music files to MP3 for you. It is very fast and all the artist, album and title information will be preserved perfectly.

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

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.

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

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 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.

It is fully compatible with Windows XP and 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 TuneClon CD-RW at iTunes.

Click menu Edit, select menu item Preferences..., and then select Advanced Tab. In order to keep the artist and title information of the music, the Include CD Text option should be checked.

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)

TuneClone V1.20 was released on September 3, 2008!

TuneClone V1.20 is a powerful DRM cracker and music converter for unlocking iTunes DRMed M4P music and protected WMA music and converting M4P, M4A, M4B, WMA to MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA.

TuneClone V1.20 allows you to remove DRM protection from purchased music files by applying the virtual CD burning technology. It strips the DRM from protected iTunes M4P or protected WMA so as to help you enjoy 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.

TuneClone V1.20 also lets you virtually burn music files with media player software like iTunes, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, WinAMP, etc.

Key features of TuneClone V1.20: http://www.tuneclone.com

1. TuneClone V1.20 is easy to install and easy to use via a simple user interface.

2. TuneClone V1.20 converts DRM protected music and movie files and various audio/video files to MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA at very high speed with very nice CD quality.

3. TuneClone V1.20 easily and quickly removes DRM from purchased music files by applying the virtual CD burning technology. Compared with using real CD-R or CD-RW disc, the virtual CD burning uses the maximum writing speed so that your music files can be converted at a very high speed.

4. TuneClone V1.20 supports converting protected music for playback on all kinds of MP3 players like Zune, PSP, BlackBerry, Creative Zen, iriver, Walkman, etc.

5. TuneClone V1.20 enables you to virtually burn music files with iTunes, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, WinAMP and so on.

6. TuneClone V1.20 is specially designed for batch converting large song collections.

7. TuneClone V1.20 well preserves ID3 tags for artist, album, title names, artworks, etc.

8. With TuneClone V1.20, the converted songs will have no DRM restriction any more.

Availability

More information about TuneClone V1.20 is available at http://www.tuneclone.com/ . You can free download TuneClone V1.20 via http://www.tuneclone.com/tuneclone_setup.exe for a try. The full version of TuneClone V1.20 costs USD 34.95. If you have questions about or show interest in TuneClone V1.20, please feel free to contact its support team via support@tuneclone.com

You are considering buying a Microsoft 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 MP3 player. Or you own an iPod while your boyfriend/girlfriend has a Zune. And you hope to share the library of M4P music songs 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 iTunes M4P music to the Zune software, not to mention playing the iTunes M4P music on your Zune player.

Yet, there seems to be a solution. You can burn the protected M4P 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 Zune accepted MP3 or WMA. And iTunes allows you to burn the protected music files 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 music files ready to be converted to Zune MP3 or WMA. Moreover, the information about the M4P music files like title, artist and album will be lost 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 music files ready to be transferred to your Zune.

I've made a Google search for programs that can convert iTunes M4P music to Zune WMA MP3, and TuneClone Audio Converter attracted my attention. The edge of TuneClone over other similar programs is that it applys the virtual CD burning technology to simulates the burning and ripping process. You just need to burn the iTunes M4P playlist to TuneClone virtual CD burner. Then TuneClone will directly convert the iTunes M4P music list to Zune WMA or MP3 for you. It is very fast and the information about each music song will be preserved perfectly. 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 Setting 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 information 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 MP3 player.

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 iTunes 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. You can learn how to remove DRM from iTunes M4P music with TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter from this guide.

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.

TuneClone M4P Converter(http://www.tuneclone.com ) is a very easy to use program that converts iTunes M4P, DRM-laden WMA music files to plain MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA. Via a user-friendly interface, it is very easy to install and very easy to use.

TuneClone M4P Converter doesn't bypass the DRM. It simulates the burning, ripping and encoding process by installing a virtual CD burner. All you need to do is burn your playlist with your media player software to TuneClone M4P Converter's virtual CD Burner, and TuneClone M4P Converter will convert music files in the playlist to MP3, WAV or DRM-free WMA files automatically.

Key features of TuneClone M4P Converter: http://www.tuneclone.com

1. Within a few clicks, TuneClone M4P Converter lets you remove DRM protection from purchased music files by applying the virtual CD burning technology. You can play the converted unprotected music files with Media Player or any MP3 players including Zune, PSP, BlackBerry, Creative Zen, iriver, SanDisk Sansa, Walkman, Cell Phone(Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia N-series, Samsung Anycall, LG, etc.) Pocket PC, PDA...

2. TuneClone M4P Converter supports almost all music formats your media player software can play and burn, whether they are DRM protected or not, including WMA, M4P, AAC, MP4, etc. And it can output audio formats such as MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA.

3. TuneClone M4P Converter can easily and quickly convert DRM protected music and movie files and various audio/video files to MP3, Wav and unprotected WMA at very high speed with very nice CD quality.

4. With TuneClone M4P Converter, the converted songs will have NO DRM restriction any more.

5. TuneClone M4P Converter is very easy to install and and very easy to use with a very handy and clear user interface.

6. TuneClone M4P Converter can preserve ID3 tags for artist, album, title names, artworks, etc.

7. TuneClone M4P Converter is specially designed for batch converting large song collections. Compared with using real CD-R or CD-RW disc, TuneClone's virtual CD burning can use the maximum writing speed so that your music files can be converted at a very high speed.

TuneClone M4P Converter is available at:
http://www.tuneclone.com/tuneclone_setup.exe