Tip #4266 - Getting Past iTunes Restrictions
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Q:
I like to use the Apple iTunes store to get some of my music, but
I don't have an iPod, so I'm unable to take that music with me. And
of course, Apple won't let me transfer those songs to MP3s. Is there
any way I can get around this or am I just out the money I've already
spent? Please help!
A:
Excellent question! I'm sure there are a lot
of you out there who have been swayed into using Apple's services
before you realized how unfair they can sometimes be. Yes, their iTunes
music store is a grand thing, but if you don't have an iPod to go
along with it, you're stuck listening to all of that music on your
computer and nowhere else. And even though it's nice to have music
to listen to on your computer, it would be even nicer if you could
take that music with you. I mean, you paid for it, so shouldn't you
be allowed to do whatever you want with it? Well, that may make sense
to you and me, but unfortunately, the Apple company sees things differently.
Okay,
just to make sure we're all on the same page here, this is what happens:
you can purchase songs from the Apple iTunes store, but unless you
have Apple supported hardware (such as an iPod) to put them on, you
can only access them from your computer. So, if you have an MP3 player
that is not supported by Apple, it won't work. Going outside of the
Apple environment is just not possible. Why, you ask? Well, most of
the songs you purchase from iTunes are in an AAC or MP4 format, which
is mainly put in place to protect Apple. But, in reality, it's all
set up by the Digital Rights Management (DRM) and they're just basically
out for the money.
The
DRM was put in place to control the copying and reproducing of copyrighted
material by artists in the recording industry. The way they see it
is if they allow people to copy music for free, they will be losing
out on their profit. And while that makes sense for CDs and music
formats like that, the DRM seems to be missing the point that consumers
are actually spending their own money on the songs they purchase from
iTunes and they're just being restricted from enjoying the music they
own. I know a lot of you fall into that category, so how does that
make you feel?
Well,
there may be another option for you. As you may know, the MP3 audio
format is pretty universal. MP3s can be played on any music player
and you can even burn them onto CDs and they'll play perfectly fine
on any standard CD player. Unfortunately though, when you buy a song
from iTunes, it does not create an MP3 file for you. Instead, they
are "protected" and can only be played with the iTunes software
or like I said before, on an Apple iPod. How frustrating!
Now,
if you right click on one of your songs in iTunes, you'll see an option
that says something like Convert Selection. Chances are though, it
will say "Convert Selection to AAC" and that doesn't help
you out at all, because your iTunes songs are already in the AAC format.
So, to get around this in iTunes, you can start by going to Edit,
Preferences, Importing (it may be
Edit, Preferences, Advanced,
Importing for some of you). Once you're under the
Importing tab, click on the drop down menu next to
Import Using: and change that setting to MP3
Encoder. That will then become your default setting. Click
OK when you're done. Next, go back up to a song you'd
like to convert, right click it and choose Convert Selection
to MP3. Now, I urge you to try this, but don't be surprised
if iTunes shuts you down. You will more than likely receive a message
that says something like "Protected files cannot be converted
to other formats," but I still recommend that you try
this first. It may work for some of you.
If
it doesn't, there are a couple other things you can try to convert
the AAC files to MP3s. The first thing to try is burning the songs
you want to an audio CD. You can then open the CD in iTunes and once
your songs come up, right click them and choose Convert Selection
to MP3. Take note though that you will now have two copies
of the same songs in your iTunes library. One will be the AAC version
and the other will be in an MP3 format. You can delete the AAC version
if you'd like, but either way, make sure you keep them all straight.
The
second option to try is a virtual CD drive. Something like that can
simulate an actual CD burner, which eliminates the need for real CDs.
This would work well for any of you who have tons of music stored
in iTunes. Otherwise, you may have to use several CDs just to get
all the songs you want transferred over. Once you have the virtual
drive set up, your Windows operating system will treat it just like
a real drive and you can then access your CD burning software through
the virtual drive itself. A couple names you could try for this are
NoteBurner and CD Emulator. You
can find more information on both of those by doing a quick search
for them with Google.
Alright, I think
that's about it. I hope I've given you hope in that all of your iTunes
music does not have to be lost forever. You do have a few options
when it comes to this kind of thing. I wish you all luck in gaining
back control of your music that you should have had in the first place!
~ Erin
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