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January 22, 2007
iTunes ----> myTunes
How to strip songs purchased from iTunes of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and convert to an .mp3 file (Windows Only)...
"Take the .m4p file and burn it to a CD using iTunes. Now rip the CD into a .mp3 file."
True this method does work, but I want something quicker and I don't want to burn a CD.
I have heard of a command line tool (hymn) that would strip the DRM out of songs and figured I would give it a try. So I headed over to the hymn-project website to download their program. It turns out that hymn is dead. However, QTFairUse 6 2.5 is a GUI application that will also strip the DRM and is linked on the hymn website.
Strip DRM
So to test out this new application I loaded up iTunes and downloaded a new .m4p file. I then started up QTFairUse and selected 'Process Just These Files' and clicked 'add files'. Next, I clicked on 'Start Conversion'. This conversion takes the .m4p file and creates a new DRM free .m4a file. I know what you thinking at this point...it's still not an .mp3 file. But one thing to note is this whole conversion process took 34 seconds to complete.
Convert to .mp3
Within iTunes click on Edit, Preferences, Advanced tab, then Importing. Make sure that 'import Using' MP3 Encoder is selected. Now within your iTunes Library you should see your new .m4a file. Click on the song to select it and click 'Advanced'. You will now see a selection to 'Convert Selection to .MP3'. This conversion from .m4a to .mp3 took me about 15 seconds.
Posted by joe harr at January 22, 2007 7:12 PM