Removing iTunes DRM

Big Chris · 10 Apr 2009 at 09:30

I'm making a CD for my Bro's wedding, my old man has provided the track list of some very obscure classical music, all of which I've sourced but for one track.

The Mrs found, and paid for it on iTunes but I can't put it on the CD as it's in m4a format.

Is it legal to remove the DRM, and can it be done easily?

I've Googled it and tried about a million trial apps but they only do the first minute before you have to pay for the software.

Cobertizo · 10 Apr 2009 at 10:07

Why not just burn the CD using iTunes? Last time I checked it lets you burn even DRMed tracks a limited number of times.

But if it was purchased recently, there's a decent chance there isn't any DRM on it anyway. Just a non-MP3 file format, which is completely different. You could try renaming it .aac and see if your burning program likes that any more.

Big Chris · 10 Apr 2009 at 10:55

Good plan. I've never used iTunes so don't know much/anything about it really.

Will have a play and see what happens.

MagicBoy · 10 Apr 2009 at 11:19

Just burn it to an Audio CD using iTunes. Even the old style DRM'd tracks can be burnt 5 times.

Big Chris · 10 Apr 2009 at 12:07

So will iTunes burn the other mp3 tracks I need to put on this audio CD too?

MrMoonX · 10 Apr 2009 at 12:20

the best way to remove drm is to burn it to cd in itunes, then rip it back into itunes it will be a drm free aac then

likwid · 10 Apr 2009 at 12:27

However this is absolutely terrible for the sound quality as you're compressing a compressed file.

Fillado · 10 Apr 2009 at 12:49

Big Chris said:
The Mrs found, and paid for it on iTunes but I can't put it on the CD as it's in m4a format.

.m4a is iTunes Plus (removing the Apple distortion field: 256Kbps AAC with NO DRM). This means you can burn it using anything that knows how to decode AAC

.m4p is the iTunes file extension that has DRM.

Cobertizo · 10 Apr 2009 at 16:01

Big Chris said:
So will iTunes burn the other mp3 tracks I need to put on this audio CD too?

Yes.

Feek · 10 Apr 2009 at 16:07

MrMoonX said:
the best way to remove drm is to burn it to cd in itunes, then rip it back into itunes it will be a drm free aac then

And it will sound absolutely horrendously terrible!

Spyhop · 10 Apr 2009 at 17:24

Feek said:
And it will sound absolutely horrendously terrible!

No it won't. Of course it'll be degraded to some extent, but I bet the reality is that you'd be extremely hard-pressed to tell the difference at a wedding. Modern codecs are great.

Feek · 10 Apr 2009 at 19:38

wush said:
No it won't. Of course it'll be degraded to some extent, but I bet the reality is that you'd be extremely hard-pressed to tell the difference at a wedding. Modern codecs are great.

Have you ever tried this? I did it a while ago and it was amazingly poor. There was so little tonal quality that it was worse then listening to Leonard Cohen!

Spyhop · 10 Apr 2009 at 20:21

Let's have a listen!

ZIP file containing a lossy and a lossy-to-lossy transcode.
http://rapidshare.com/files/219792128/Transcode.zip.html

1. Who can tell the difference?
2. Would you notice if you weren't looking for it?
3. Does the lossy-to-lossy transcode sound absolutely horrendously terrible?

Fillado · 10 Apr 2009 at 21:33

wush said:
1. Who can tell the difference?
2. Would you notice if you weren't looking for it?

Normally I would agree with you. It was only when I downloaded Nine Inch Nails - The Slip in Apple Lossless but then decided to just get the MP3 instead that I noticed. With the song Discipline in Apple Lossless I could tell it was better just by the "kick" from my subwoofer which the MP3 lacked.

Of course, for the most part, there is generally little difference on low-end speakers/headphones.

Spyhop · 10 Apr 2009 at 21:42

Fillado said:
Normally I would agree with you. It was only when I downloaded Nine Inch Nails - The Slip in Apple Lossless but then decided to just get the MP3 instead that I noticed. With the song Discipline in Apple Lossless I could tell it was better just by the "kick" from my subwoofer which the MP3 lacked.

Of course, for the most part, there is generally little difference on low-end speakers/headphones.

That (lossless vs. lossy) is not what the discussion is about. This is about lossy vs. lossy-recompressed-as-lossy and the irrational gag reflex.

(Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't put such material in my 'library', simply because there's no reason to settle for less than FLAC/LAME rips of my CDs)

I hope to see some response to the specimen that I uploaded!

Feek · 10 Apr 2009 at 21:54

I'm only listening on my laptop speakers and I have to say I could tell very little difference between the two. I'm surprised.

Mattus · 10 Apr 2009 at 22:10

I think I can tell the difference, but it's pretty insignificant. (Using DACMagic, NAD C352 amp, Monitor Audio BR2 speakers). If I wasn't looking for the difference then I wouldn't notice. Then again, I hardly have audiophile ears.

Spyhop · 10 Apr 2009 at 22:23

Which filename sounds better?

We have a similar speaker setup, btw. I have DACMagic/C320BEE/B&W-DM601-S3. Although I listened to these on my headphones

Big Chris · 11 Apr 2009 at 16:49

Fillado said:
.m4a is iTunes Plus (removing the Apple distortion field: 256Kbps AAC with NO DRM). This means you can burn it using anything that knows how to decode AAC

.m4p is the iTunes file extension that has DRM.

I may have told a porkie in the original post, having just checked the file in question it's an m4p not an m4a.

I tried converting to aac in iTunes but it wasn't having any of it sadly.