Remove DRM from purchased songs?

[adam044]

is there an easy way to remove the DRM (purchase info) from songs bought from the itunes songs? I have 100-300 songs that I want to remove it from. the reason for this is because im uploading my entire music collection to google play so it can be accessed anywhere but it cant upload protected media. any ideas would be great thanks!

[adam044]

300 views and no help?! is there something wrong with my question? if so please let me know as i dont see what the problem is. Im looking to store my music that i bought on the internet as a backup but need to remove the protection.

[Roessnakhan]

I'm pretty sure you can't legally remove the DRM from your songs unless you upgrade your music to iTunes Plus format.

[adam044]

thank you for the reply. anyone else have any idea?

[JonathanK81]

This is kind of time-consuming, but just re-encode them using iTunes. All you do is right-click the song, and choose to "Create AAC Version." It'll create a second version of the song which does not have DRM on it.

[blevins321]

iTunes Match will do that for you. It's a yearly subscription, but you can sign up, match and redownload non-DRM songs, then cancel your subscription. $25.

[doubledown7d]

When you cancel, you don't lose access to those files?

[blevins321]

Originally Posted by doubledown7d

When you cancel, you don't lose access to those files?

You lose the ability to redownload, but you can keep the ones you downloaded the local versions of.

[terraphantm]

I was under the impression that iTunes songs are already drm free

[musty345]

You can also try burning these songs to about 20 CDs, and then ripping them back onto iTunes. Not only will these songs be DRM free, but you'll have physical backups of them.

[dccorona]

Originally Posted by terraphantm

I was under the impression that iTunes songs are already drm free

They are, but they weren't always. The OP probably purchased the songs in question before the DRM went away.

@OP: there are programs out there that literally play the song and record the sound data into a new file, thus removing the DRM, but it's time consuming (every song has to play in its entirety), and may result in quality loss. I don't recall the name of the one I've seen in the past, but google should be able to help you find one

[davidra]

I just have a few CD-RW's, copy the songs onto them and re-load into iTunes. Gives you duplicates, but there's not much wrong with that. And as someone said, once you've bought it you can always re-download the DRM version.

[adam044]

Originally Posted by Jonathan360

This is kind of time-consuming, but just re-encode them using iTunes. All you do is right-click the song, and choose to "Create AAC Version." It'll create a second version of the song which does not have DRM on it.

this will not work because they are protected, thats the whole point of them being protected so you cant change the type

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Originally Posted by musty345

You can also try burning these songs to about 20 CDs, and then ripping them back onto iTunes. Not only will these songs be DRM free, but you'll have physical backups of them.

i tried it with a DVD-R but when I put the dvd back into my computer it stills knows that they are protected files. doing something wrong? or will it not work with a dvd?

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Originally Posted by terraphantm

I was under the impression that iTunes songs are already drm free

yes they are NOW but a couple years ago they were not

[FSMBP]

Originally Posted by adam044

this will not work because they are protected, thats the whole point of them being protected so you cant change the type

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i tried it with a DVD-R but when I put the dvd back into my computer it stills knows that they are protected files. doing something wrong? or will it not work with a dvd?

You don't understand. You have burn an Audio-cd within iTunes with the songs. Then, rip those songs back to your computer as MP3s.

The reason why that works is, iTunes is authorized to transcode your DRM-MP3s to an Audio-CD (typical Audio-CDs do not have any DRM or copy protection). This burned Audio-CD has your songs on it, but no DRM. So when you put in the burned Audio-CD into iTunes, iTunes will rip it & put it on your computer as a normal MP3.

You were burning a data DVD. The DRM-MP3s were just being copied to the DVD. The DRM is preserved whenever you copy the file. It only loses it's DRM when you transcode it to a different file (as I mentioned above).

[adam044]

Originally Posted by FSMBP

You don't understand. You have burn an Audio-cd within iTunes with the songs. Then, rip those songs back to your computer as MP3s.

The reason why that works is, iTunes is authorized to transcode your DRM-MP3s to an Audio-CD (typical Audio-CDs do not have any DRM or copy protection). This burned Audio-CD has your songs on it, but no DRM. So when you put in the burned Audio-CD into iTunes, iTunes will rip it & put it on your computer as a normal MP3.

You were burning a data DVD. The DRM-MP3s were just being copied to the DVD. The DRM is preserved whenever you copy the file. It only loses it's DRM when you transcode it to a different file (as I mentioned above).

ok that does make sense. I just didnt know if a dvd would work or not so i gave it a shot since they all fit on 1 dvd and took about 5 minutes. thank you. wish there was an easier way other than copying all of them to cds

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by adam044

is there an easy way to remove the DRM (purchase info) from songs bought from the itunes songs? I have 100-300 songs that I want to remove it from. the reason for this is because im uploading my entire music collection to google play so it can be accessed anywhere but it cant upload protected media. any ideas would be great thanks!

Make a backup of your computer (you did that anyway, didn't you? If not, run to the nearest store, buy an external drive, and backup your computer). Just in case something goes wrong. Create a new library (open iTunes on a Mac while holding the option key pressed, check on winrumors.com how to do it on a PC), then download all your purchased songs. They will be downloaded without DRM. Start iTunes again with option-key pressed to get back to your old library; import the songs from the new library, then delete the old duplicates. Obviously try it with a single song first.

[adam044]

is there any way to make itunes think that it is copying to a cd like a virtual cd drive or something so I dont need to burn all the songs to cd?

[stroked]

Originally Posted by adam044

is there any way to make itunes think that it is copying to a cd like a virtual cd drive or something so I dont need to burn all the songs to cd?

Yes, there is an app for that, but you have to buy it. I can't remember what it is called, but if you Google DRM and iTunes, you should find it.

I tried burning to a CD, but none of the meta data would be on the copy, so you would have to manually type what each song was. I gave up and just used torrents.

[musty345]

Originally Posted by adam044

is there any way to make itunes think that it is copying to a cd like a virtual cd drive or something so I dont need to burn all the songs to cd?

For Windows, Daemon tools lite is excellent, I'm not sure about mac though...

[Daveoc64]

Originally Posted by Jonathan360

This is kind of time-consuming, but just re-encode them using iTunes. All you do is right-click the song, and choose to "Create AAC Version." It'll create a second version of the song which does not have DRM on it.

Originally Posted by Roessnakhan

I'm pretty sure you can't legally remove the DRM from your songs unless you upgrade your music to iTunes Plus format.

Even if you use iTunes Match or iTunes Plus, some tracks that are no longer on the iTunes Store cannot be "upgraded".

[terraphantm]

Originally Posted by adam044

is there any way to make itunes think that it is copying to a cd like a virtual cd drive or something so I dont need to burn all the songs to cd?

Honestly you will lose a lot of quality that way... To the point where it's not worth it IMO. In your shoes I'd probably just torrent the music. I know it's not legal, but it's not like the artists didn't make money off your original purchase.

If you're not willing, I'd just pay $25 for match and do any songs that are NLA via the burned cd method

[adam044]

will using itunes match remove the purchased by and account name and stuff like that. the stuff that comes up when you click get info.

[Roessnakhan]

Originally Posted by adam044

will using itunes match remove the purchased by and account name and stuff like that. the stuff that comes up when you click get info.

No. In fact, if you re-download lower quality songs in the iTunes plus format (e.g. download the matched files) it'll add your account e-mail to those files that previously did not have them.

[adam044]

Originally Posted by Roessnakhan

No. In fact, if you re-download lower quality songs in the iTunes plus format (e.g. download the matched files) it'll add your account e-mail to those files that previously did not have them.

so i have other members of my family's music in my library will itunes match work with that since its authorized to play on my computer? will it changed their email address to mine?

[Roessnakhan]

Originally Posted by adam044

so i have other members of my family's music in my library will itunes match work with that since its authorized to play on my computer? will it changed their email address to mine?

It will match it, to make it display your e-mail you'll have to delete it (but don't check the "Delete from iCloud" box) then click the download icon next to the greyed-out track. For example, this is what I did.