Crack itunes protected music (remove DRM protection)

Music was a huge part of society in the past, but with technology it is bigger than ever! The fastest, and easiest way to get music these days is via the Internet ("The Internet is a communication tool used the world over where people can come together to b!tch about movies and share pronagraphy with one another. " -- Jay and Silent Bob: Strike Back!).

Apple, Inc., Makers of the Mac/Apple computers are THE biggest online music seller. EVERYONE buys from Apple! When you buy Music in the Online Apple store, all the music that is downloaded is protected by an algorithm known as DRM. DRM prevents you from sharing your files. It pretty much forces people to buy music, instead of getting it from a friend, because DRM lock songs to one computer only.

This instructable will show you two methods of cracking and removing the DRM protection on itunes songs.

Step 1: The CD method - Intoduction

The easiest way is the CD method.
It works some times, but not all the time, depending on what version of iTunes you have.

Comments

[abadfart]

how about getting the protection off of a movie you bought off of itunes

[knexcthulu]

hey yeah ive gotten this ipod off a friend who didn't want it anymore nd he left to go to america permanently and theres tons of apps nd songs nd stuff but they need authorization but i cant get it from my friend so can anyone helpo me i rly want to get them onto my computor so i dont lose them forever and have to download them again(most were payed ones) can anyone help me?

[A good name]

I used to pirate all my music, then I started buying. Part way through they introduced DRM. I spent months trying to find a way to remove DRM, but now I'm just pirating all my music and going to concerts instead (which is how artists make more money)

[bill121]

my fair tunes doesn't work it just has an error and quits!

[DrGabriel]

It might only work with older versions of Itunes.

[mickmoffat]

 it works for me if you download switch sound file converter 2.0.3 aand convert your songs it takes the DRM!!!! off so you can share it =P

[moagnor]

iTunes has a quality at only 128, which is VERY compressed, so the quality is already very low compared to a CD. When you do this trick the sound gets even worse. Maybe you claim that you can't hear it, but try to burn, import, then burn the imported and import that again a few times over... Or just listen to a 128 quality mp3 compared to a CD...

[bishyk]

Digital copies are loseless....otherwise it'll be a failed copy and the disc burn/import is aborted. Correct me if I'm wrong but this is what I've always thought. If you put 128 bits/s in then you get that back out since the bumps on the disc represent a "digital" representation of the file. I haven't tested this since I have better things to do with my CD-R's :D

[stussy]

digital copies are lossless, but mp3 compression is lossy data compression.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3#Audio_quality

[A P3RS0N]

Simpler ways to do this: 1. Black hole it 2. convert to WAV and back

[mfmpp]

Hi All, In a little bit of a jam here. I just bought an ipod off of ebay and the seller said there would be tons of music on there, which there was, unfortunately about half of the songs are not authorized to play on my computer. I don't know if there is any way of bypassing this so as to play the songs, even if i have to convert it to another format........ any help is greatly appreciated. Thx.

[Gamer917]

i use doubletwist (google it)

[DainiusGB]

will that work with rented movies? how can i keep them?

[hernanai]

You can use DVD Shrink... but there are some movies that still won't let you... just google it and you should find it for free... muah ha ha ha ha...

[cornflaker]

Ripit4me and DVD Decrypter is the best combo (works on ANY movie, even those tricky "unrippable" ones), and then DVD Shrink or Handbrake deneping if you want to burn it back onto a DVD or encode it into a digital format (which is better because you can burn between 3 and 5 movies onto 1 DVD with almost perfect quality that will play back on computers, xbox 360's ps3's and some dvd players.)
Just google for the programs, they are all free and easy to find.

[cornflaker]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, you simply open up Ripit4me and tell it where to rip the DVD and if you want the whole DVD, movie and menus only or just the movie, and it automatically opens up DVD Decrypter and does everything for you.(You don't have to touch one button in DVD Decrypter.) Easy.

[YoChuck]

To make back-ups of your DVDs (*disclaimer*), the best software is probably the combo of AnyDVD and CloneDVD. They work great!

[joe57005]

i like K9Copy for linux (not sure if it's cross platform), it even lets you cut out the stupid commercials and anti-piracy scare tactics they put in, or you can just copy. (granted you still have to re-encode to get a 7 gig dvd down to 4)

[monkeywithawrench]

Avex DVD Ripper Platinum is what i have. it is not free though. it is, however, 100% legal as long as you buy it. it allows you to burn dvd's to ur computer in any format! also, you can change the format of movies on ur computer already. it is totally worth and as long as you use it Enoughf, it will literally pay for it's self. it is not Piracy. in its privacy statement is states that it is not illegal!

[YoChuck]

Sounds good... but I have to say I kind of get a kick out of watching the anti-piracy scare tactics on a copied DVD! ;)

[cornflaker]

Haha I downloaded a movie one time (my uh disc was uh *scratched* ;) ) that still had that on it lol

[temp]

What do i do if i have a mac? I can't download the thing and the cd method don't work either.

[danlab]

To clarify the many people asking whether or not this is legal here you go: in article 10 of apples terms and agreements it does state that "(vii) You shall be entitled to export, burn (if applicable) or copy (if applicable) Products solely for personal, noncommercial use. " However it also states: "(x) You agree that you will not attempt to, or encourage or assist any other person to, circumvent or modify any security technology or software that is part of the Service or used to administer the Usage Rules. " So, technically it is perfectly fine to copy and burn the music to a cd etc, however it is clearly against the itunes policy to remove the copy protection from their music; which is to the best of my knowledge means it is not "Illegal" however it does give itunes the right to disable your account, prevent you from purchasing any more music from them, and possibly even prevent you from ever using Itunes again. Overall, it is not illegal for say, but it is against the wishes of Itunes, yet there is no way for Itunes to find out that you are doing this and if you are as annoyed with apple and itunes as most people are it should not concern you in the least.

[danlab]

if you want to look at the actual terms of service from itunes it is here: http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/service.html

[everyones a chump]

There are actually places on the internet you can buy songs for say 10 cents each. They are legal because they are in places like Russia where it is legal to sell the songs for so low a price and it is legal to buy them here in america. Also, some of them record what you buy so that if you harddrive dies you can re-download yous songs for free, so why use itunes or any american store when you can get them better and cheaper somewhere else? Also, limewire is crap, it didn't use to be, but the government now records everything you upload, so you will get caught if you download something illegal off of limewire don't use it!

[moldybluecheese]

hey whats the name of the that store with $.10 songs?

[collard41]

you dont seriously think that that is true? there are millions of things put on limewire everyday, same with youtube. it is impossible and impractical to filter all of them.

[Derin]

try dc++ or microtorrent

[thomas the lover]

But if the gov asks you didn't no it was accessing it so its limewires fault .

[somerockenguy]

your right the goverment can track who uploads to lime wire but thay cant trace who downloads.

[Rob K]

Itunes does not have a re-download option. If you lose what you bought and did not back up, you get screwed.

[MatrixEagle15]

i know its REALLY retarded my library crashed like 5 times now and every time i loose my downloaded songs

[Gamer917]

back them up

[collard41]

does this worrk with itunes 8

[moagnor]

I bought a program called tunebite which does excatly the same. When you play the DRM-protected file the program automaticly detects it, and makes a mp4-copy in a separate folder. Tunebite can also scan your iTunes library and convert all your existing DRM-protected files. (The program is not freeware, and no, I'm not associated with the distribitor...)

[conradev]

how about iTunes 8?

[conradev]

Or Macs (sorry for double posting

[airsofter2]

umm, it didnt work with my version of itunes, which versions is it compatable w/

[airsofter2]

I have not yet gotten this yet, but I am downloading the framework for it... the sourceforge file doesnt have the right framework for it... for anyone who has trouble with this... like me here is the site: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en

but thx for compiling this, im sure it will be very helpful... nice work

[Justinger]

That face is awesome. I should get one for my garden.

[thomas the lover]

There are allot of legal eastern European web sites that sell it cheaper and with out DRM . OMG face lol

[Panzer_mike]

Im pretty sure using a DRM unlocking program is illegal... What i use and what works for nearly everything is tunebite. it creates an audio loop inside your computer so it plays the track in itunes/ zune and than records it at the same time up to 16x faster... another method is taking the cord you use to connect your speakers to your computer and plug it in your microphone port. Than play the song and have something record it. Than edit the ID3 tags...

[joe57005]

that's illegal too. you are still circumventing the copy protection. it does not matter how you do it, be it burning to a cd, then ripping, directly decrypting it, or even recording it as it plays, it's still illegal. it's all because of the dmca. you can either buy their music, listen to it on their players, with their consent and on their schedule, or go to prison. there are no legal alternatives.

[E-Dragon]

See:

Reuters

Or google "how is tunebite legal" etc....

[E-Dragon]

No it is NOT!
RIAA Just had a (digital) amendment to copyright protection laws: Basically - If you legally purchase the media you are allowed to copy it for your OWN use. (Example: making a Mix CD, again for your OWN use) The digital rights amendment basically states they you are NOT allowed to remove the DRM protection from any media. Tunebite does NOT remove the protection, it RECORDS the media. That is still legal, why? (You may ask) because of ownership; once you purchase media (or anything for that matter) YOU own it. This is why you can: Sell your old CD’s, Games, Movies. But because of COPYRIGHT laws you can not redistribute them. COPING any media of ones OWN personal use is legal, otherwise your DVR’s, Tivo’s, etc would be illegal. So in short, as long as you do NOT modify/change the ORIGINAL media file and or redistribute the media, it’s legal....

[ultrauber]

What I've heard, though is that you don't own iTunes-bought music; it's still Apple's. You just get to play it on your iPod.

[maker12]

YEA BUT I WOULD NEVER DO THIS BUT COOL IDEA

[Sam the Wizer]

It may be illegal, but I think the way iTunes opperates may constitute larceny. I bought music legally from iTunes, but reformatted my PC to run Linux. iTunes won't run in Linux, and now I can't play files I legally posses because they are encrypted.

[joe57005]

i agree, but strictly speaking (according to the law as i understand it) you don't own the music you download (they're just "letting" you listen to it), so it's not larceny.

[Trid]

The Solution: Boycott Apple. Sandisk has great players.

[joe57005]

I already boycott Apple and Microsoft. I've been using nothing but Linux and open source for 18 months now.

[Sam the Wizer]

I got my music working and uploaded to my iPod without iTunes. This will be the last Apple product I ever own tho.

[MatrixEagle15]

joe57005 you make an excellent point

[NetReaper]

I think pluging the headphone jack into the microphone jack is easiest, use audacity to record it.

[dfc849]

Works for me too. I just use waveout mix as the default sound setting so that there's no need for a cable to do this.

[pappyld04]

Personally I could care less if you paid for it or not. I believe you said that you had. Every time one these ABLEs shows up people argue this same point. Listen up kids - This man PAID for that music, what he has to do to get it back is up to him! They do not rent CDs at WallyWorld and who the heck wants to pay for 11 more tunes that they don't want? This topic is just as explosive as politics and religion and neither side is likely to budge. If you are so pissed at these kids, who are using their brains for something productive, why did you click to come and see his tutorial? I think America is still a(somewhat)free country and there are many more ABLEs you may choose to enjoy. If you don't like the content avoid his post! Simple enough?

[tgw914]

This is a great Instructable, but the version of myFairTunes (v.7.0.2) will not work with the newest version of iTunes (7.6.2.9). Does anyone know of an update or patch?

[joeyosemite]

interesting photos... nice instructable!

[maker12]

sticking it to THE MAN! DIE COPYRIGHT! and macrovison!=

[bxridley]

Nice instructable, helpful to the right people. I've altered/changed my OS a few times in the past 6 months to get the optimal mix for my new home-built computer. Each time, despite the fact that I have PAID for these songs, iTunes insists I "authorize" the "new" computer so I can listen to them. I have one authorization left, so thank you, KevinSaw. In the "old days", you could make mix tapes for your friends and it promoted new music purchases and wasn't illegal. The executives who thought of this DRM and Digital Millenium Copyright Act crap up are misguided; this kind of irritation encourages people to steal music out of spite alone. There should be a standard that covers fair use, like making copies for your car, other computers, iPod, etc.

[mysterious ninja of fire]

Im glad i found this because i brought music off of itunes 5 months ago and didnt know about the drm protection i dont own an ipod so it would not let me put it on my mp-3 player so thank you

[Rob K]

I brother bought me a Ipod for graduation. He added some songs from his collection when he gave it to me. I have been having problems with my Ipod but did not want to lose the songs doing a restore. This should help me. You get my vote.

[KillerRodent]

I'm having an issue with the program when i go to convert it says dosent support patch 7.6.2.9 does any one know how to fix this

[knowhim777]

LIMEWIRE IS A PEICE OF CRAP AND IT WILL INFECT YOUR FRICKING COMPUTER WITH VIRUSES.

[tealpsyclone]

the most likely way to get said virus is to download a lot, and i mean a lot of porn. be it soft or hardcore it is the most sure fire way to infect your computer with the viruses that the world has come to know and expect from the internet. SO CLEAN UP YOUR HAND AND KEY BOARD THEN WIPE THE PORN OFF YOUR HARD DRIVE DO A VIRUS SWEEP, and everything should be okay.

[littlechef37]

LIMEWIRE .. ITS FREE AND YOU CAN SHARE IT

[joe57005]

bittorrent is better.

[KevinSaw]

Free Viruses! YAY!

[littlechef37]

I beg to differ. I have been using limewire for 2-3 years now and I havent ever gotten a virus all yo umust do is make sure you dont download batch or zip files... MAKE SURE YOU KNOW what your getting and you will be fine. In my opinion

[amin_misran]

i totally agree with you. Most of of the pc infected with virus fro internet is because ppl dont know what they download

[thomas the lover]

Ur right use commonsence and all will be OK

[littlechef37]

THANK YOU for pointing that out.......

[joye68]

Thank you for this. The worst part about buying music in a certain format is not being able to transfer it from one medium to another. LOCKED my foot? WTH? THAT's not what I paid for...If you are going to make me work for what I PAY for, then..well what comes around goes around. . . and believe me, I'll find a way around it. When I'm working out I like to take a few tunes with me. I paid for it, therefore I should be allowed to do so. I've been able to adapt formats on some pieces however there are some things I can't get around. As far as the "deeply embedded info"... that'll backfire eventually. Someone will crack into it somewhere to gain access to private info... I've already had my bank (of America) and my college (twice-once as a student and then again as an employee) screw up with my personal information...I'm more careful than ever to keep it off the grid.

[Peter,]

Why should you want to be illegal? Why don't you just BUY music? If you want something really much, you do would give money for it! And it is your music, but there is a protecting because otherwise one people would have to buy it, and give it to others and Apple and the artists don't get there money because you are poor or just lazy!

[camiller]

And what about the music I have paid for, from iTunes, that I can listen to on my PC but want to listen to on my Sansa. I paid for it, if I need to break the protection to listen to it where I want then I will. For what it is worth I listen to a lot of independent artists now days mostly by downloading music for free legitimately from their sites of from compilations like the one that SXSW puts together. I support these artists by going to their concerts when I can and buying their merchandise.

[KevinSaw]

First of all, don't stereotype us as being poor and lazy. Just because we don't feel like spending money on sound waves, doesn't mean we are poor. And lazy? If you are an avid downloader and actually take precautions to not get viruses, it takes a LOT more effort than to just go down to Best Buy to buy it. And here is my spiel about CD prices and why it's pointless. You might send around $17 on a CD that you buy at some store, but do you know how much of that actually goes to the Artist? A mere $2. So you might be asking, "Hey, but where does the other $15 go?" Well, I'll tell you! $6.23 goes to the Retailer for markup. $3.34 goes to Distributors and shipping costs. $0.59 goes to the Record Label. $0.75 goes to pressing the album and printing booklets. $0.85 goes to Retailer's discounts. $1.08 goes to Producing the record. and $2.15 goes to Advertising. (Please see attached chart) Wow, from this point of view, that CD at Best Buy isn't looking too well. So when you buy your music, all that money isn't going to the band unless they make the CDs/Advertise/Sell them, themselves. That means, out of ALL the money you spend on music, 88.3% goes to people who do nothing, but rip the artists off with recording sessions, CD duplications, CD labels & Cases, advertising, and stocking it in your local store. Even for Apple, Inc. They do nothing but load the music onto their servers so you can buy them. That basically means, since the music is put onto their server automatically by computers, that they do little work, but make A LOT of money. THAT's why sharing should be legal. THAT's why DRMing is so pointless. Oh, and sharing doesn't hurt the Artist, it hurts the providers and distributors of the music industry. Ever since music started to spread via limewire and other p2p programs/sites, music has exploded! Since most artists make their money from playing concerts and NOT their CDs, sharing music would just help them by growing out their fan base. Radiohead, for example, shocked the record industry on October 10th, 2007 by selling their new record, In Rainbows, on their own website. They left a spot where you typed the amount of money you wanted to spend, from a penny to whatever, and that's how much you got the CD download for! No DRMs. Just 100% Quality music. The reason why this was such a genius idea was because all the money went straight to the band. There were no middle men to "steal" Radiohead's money. Ironically, most people paid $10 for the download. Also, it boosted Radiohead's popularity drastically. So next time you/anyone thinks that downloading is for "poor or just lazy" people, think again... because overall, the downloading community has boosted the Music Industry.

[LegoFudge]

That was a very eloquent post. I applaud your writing style and thank you for expressing all of our feelings in a handful of choice words. Ha ha. I sounded really solemn there, didn't I? But still, excellent point.

[joe57005]

if anything sharing is free publicity for the artist. Also, illegally downloaded drm-free music, is far more desirable than drm-infected, unplayable, and expensive retail music. copy protection only makes the illegal alternative more popular.

[knowhim777]

dude, good point. gooooooooooooood point.

[Peter,]

But all the people who get money for a song, did worked on the song, in which way doesn't matter. So when you're downloading a song, these people don't get money for there work. Yes I know, they'll get some money, but not the same as what they should get when you just buy a song. Apple don't do, as you say, little work. They are busy with things you couldn't even imagine. They are busy with iTunes inside and outside. They're just and only busy with giving you iTunes' on his best! And of course with there other stuff like iPod and Mac!

[KevinSaw]

To be honest, Ipods and Macs are possibly the worst built electronics ever.
They are way too proprietary, and too expensive for what you get.
Proprietary wires/cds/screens = them wanting you to only buy their products

[kjrviking]

I agree Apple is overpriced and you can get cheaper, better products for less from microsoft and Creative and sansa. For the latest things on affordable MP3 players visit anythingbutipod.com

[alfonso]

My friend got a Sansa and it was a piece of crap. It broke the day after he got it, and once he got it fixed it broke almost every month until he got a new I-pod.

[kjrviking]

Mabey he should try Creative and Microft. Zune and ZEN kill the iPod nanos (all of them) and the videos.

[zpersichetti]

i partially agree with you i do think they are WAY to overpriced, but they do work well and are easy to use... i don't think they're the worst made either but you can barely do anything on them. battlefield 2142 for the pc = $20 for the mac = $50 thats a 30 dollar price differenve damn you Apple cant you just let us play normle games

[alfonso]

You guys do know that you can run any OS on a mac that you want, right? I can play any game on a mac for just as much as I can on a PC. Also, with the way this conversation is going, why do you guys care how much the games cost when you could just torrent them?

[copycat42]

i agree, i have an rca pearl, and for 1/3rd the price, i got a heck of a machine. i don't listen to music on it, (i convert books to mp3) and i can't see paying for music you can only play on one device.

[Peter,]

Then why shouldn't you just download your music from limewire and other p2p-programs?

[zpersichetti]

because they COULD have viruses i use blubster and i havent ever got a virus... But NEVER EVER download programs from limewire i downloaded 1 thing and it crashed my machine

[lawizeg]

SOME people don't have credit cards.

[duck-lemon]

was this even a burning question?

[jhfortier]

Not everyone who unlocks DRM files is stealing them or sharing them on p2p. In order to put the iTunes songs that I buy onto my Sony mp3 player, they have to be changed out of the locked format. iPods, in my experience, are not really durable, and lack many of the features that I got on my sony player (ie. step counter, distance counter for exercise, fm/am radio) for FAR cheaper. Thanks for posting this!

[LarrySDonald]

I agree fully and in fact just now sold some music to me just now. Thing is, this house has five mp3 players (me, my wife, my son and two daughters at 9 and 5). There are also three computers running three versions of windows with two dualbooting linux (one mostly dualbooting windows, really). Also an xbox acting as a media center running linux, speakers in several rooms. No two mp3 players are the same brand or model, some support some form of DRM or another (or so I've been told). I don't mind paying up for what I consume, but yeah, whatever the latest brainstorm in DRM is doing is probably not going to fit in well. I may buy after I confirmed I have a DRM free version, but if I not, no sale. I realize it's a pain to have to trust me, but frankly, it's not like it's trivial to allow some jackass organization to monitor me either.

[Drillbit]

You know I always have a tear in my eye watching MTV cribs. Knowing my little download of music I got on P2P or where ever didn't help to pay for there #5+ car, or diamond collar for there dog, or private collection of personal signed items. Live equally where all have the same.

[Drillbit]

PS.. Thank you for the app. using it now :D

[chocoblood]

Apple offers DRM Free music ! Yipee !
Only for EMI music: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/05/30itunesplus.html
But watch out, Big brother is watching you, and will probably kick your wallet if you share it:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070530-apple-hides-account-info-in-drm-free-music-too.html
Thirdly, Apple wants DRM free music, because (among other things) they can't sell to non iPod users:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

The big problem is that downloads might kill the record companies, not necessarily the artists, look at what happened to the In Rainbows experiment. (Go Radiohead! )
And remember kids, don't believe everything that's typed, this is not the whole story there is plenty more.
Internet is very dangerous to some very high people protect it!www.savetheinternet.com

[ry25920]

Good Job! FIGHT THE POWER!!!! +1 +fav

[MacXO]

Two things from me: 1: Buy your music. Share it with your friends. Don't put it on a server so that strangers can download it. I would guess that real "music pirates" would download it and make a CD out of it and sell it on the street for dirt or even worse, we all know about what the the Red Chinese government think about copy right laws. Think of all those pirated/duped music and movies being sold illegally. Buy your movies and songs and share it with friends only. 2. With iTunes, it is easier than some of these convoluted ways. Just to test my idea, I converted a DRM'd song purchased from iTunes and told iTunes to convert the already mp4 to an mp4 file. The DRM was gone and I was able to send it to a person with a PC and she was able to play it on her de-authorized iTunes software. Buy your music and movies and share only with friends you know. This is how it has been since the invention of cassette tapes. No one got sued over making mixes from songs from a friend's collection. It's not about the record companies making butt loads of money. It's about the groups who are only duping someone else's work and making butt loads of money for the cost of a blank CDR.

[pstretz]

when I right click on a Protected AAC song in iTunes i don't see the option for conversion. what revision are you using? are you sure the type is protected AAC and not Purchased AAC? Purchased AAC is from the iTunes Plus store and doesn't have DRM.

[MacXO]

I stand corrected. I thought Purchased was the same thing. Instead here is another way. If you are on a Mac, you can create a disk image rather than waste a CDR. Not much faster but a little bit. I do have a good excuse for my mistake. I have M.S.... for real, so my brain goes wacko sometimes. Please forgive me for putting up a mistake and make you waste time in trying. - Ken

[Labot2001]

Is there any way to remove DRM without sacrificing WMA quality?

[Labot2001]

Great ible, BTW, very useful. ;]

[pstretz]

you didn't mention that both of these methods loose music data. in both cases you are re-compressing an already compressed file. once you make an mp3, wma, or m4a/m4p you have removed data from the original WAV/AIFF raw audio file. turning it back into a WAV/AIFF (like burning to CD or recording the "what u hear" audio playback) doesn't bring this data back. right now i don't believe there is a lossless DRM removal for m4p files.

[bgugi]

to my understanding, if you were to use a "lossless" format, if you could import it to audacity (through opening it as a file or recording from stereo mix), you could probably save it as another "lossless" file (i use quotes because no audio format can be truly lossless)

[pstretz]

you're correct about transcoding. if you have a lossless format like WAV, AIFF, FLAK, Apple Lossless, etc you can bounce back and forth between them with no loss of quality. lossless in this case means you can get the original recorded quality back on decoding. the problem is that Microsoft and Apple encoded the original quality file and stripped out what you can't "hear" then compressed the file. you can not get this data back. it is lost and thus lossy. so when you turn an mp3 back into a WAV and then make it an mp3 you not only lost the data from the first time around, you loose more on the second run. this is like saving a jpg over and over again. the quality degrades with each iteration. as for recorded music format being lossless, i can only assume you are referring to digital recording techniques and their sampling of analog audio. you are only partially right since you can record on an analog media, magnetic tape or vinyl to maintain true full recorded audio sound. though i doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference between a guitar recorded on my 24bit 48kHz digital setup at home and that same input piped to tape. WAV, AIFF, FLAK, OGG/VORBIS, Apple Lossless are all examples of lossless audio formats meaning they have no loss from the original media, which is usually a CD.

[leebryuk]

I've found that when I run audacity and itunes at the same time if forces a crash of both programs....hmmm Coincidence? Or need I remind people of the days when MS actively placed incompatibilities into Windows that hobbled competing programs functionality so you might be tempted to buy a MS product instead?

[jakee117]

the big corporations don't need any more money anyway they just take advantage of the artists to get $

_{greedy s**t heads}

very well put KevinSaw thank you for opening people's eyes to real downloading

_{at least some people still have the common sense to not let the government think for them =D}

thank you ,
jake

[watuzi]

Power to the people!

[taracor]

Heh, thanks man! This is pretty good. I've never used iTunes (precisely because of DRM) but this is definitely a neat little work around. Can you just convert the files to mp3s with Super or something to get rid of the DRM or do you need that specific program?

[hobomobo]

SUPER can't read the locked aac files that apple sells you, unfortunately. Same deal with any audio/video conversion program. Recently they have started to sell some tracks in "iTunes plus" format which doesn't include DRM, but DOES include your account info deep inside the track so they can find out who is doing the sharing. The fool-proof method of removing DRM is to run a cable from your headphone jack back to the mic input and re-record your tracks with your trusty audio recording program of choice. Time consuming, but works every time! Great instructable! It's our music, we paid for it, so we should be able to use it how we please. Power to the consumers!

[srhadaham]

unfortunately u lose a lot more quality using this method and u have to make sure u have the volume set to appropriate levels or u get static or cracking noises but once u figure that out it works pretty good

[hobomobo]

Very true. I should have disclaimed that the outie-inie method is best suited for those with some audio engineering how-how and gear to match :-)

[Noodle93]

I've been using this method for ages. Use a CD-RW.

[egreen767]

SMART--never thought of that lol

[egreen767]

I have a Zune and obviously iTunes music won't work on it (except for the iTunes plus stuff, but there's not much selection of new music with that). But, I got a crapload of those iTunes cards for Christmas. I have been using the CD method, but that is a pain to do. You have to burn it on to a cd (wasting cds), then rip it, then type in all of the song, artist and album info. So, a program sounds nice to use.

[lipids]

The post neglects to mention that it is possible to by tracks from iTunes that do not have DRM. iTunes Plus tracks are a higher bit rate and do not have DRM. Also, if you purchased tracks with DRM, then it should be obvious to you where you got them. If you do not want DRM, then buy a CD and rip it. Or use some other P2P app to steal the music. There is no reason for anyone to get upset that a retailer has found a great and easy way to sell music. If you don't want it, don't buy it.

[nf119]

genius! how fast is the conversion?

[underclocker]

DRMd music is just rented music. And music that was compressed twice isn't as good. Please rip your own music from CDs that you own.