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DRM Removal, Converting M4P to M4A

Gigantic

Gigantic

A big, big love
I've spent the past week cleaning up my cache of +5K ripped CDs and LPs in preparation for possibly abandoning Apple Music after 25 years. I have about 2 dozen or so purchased albums, however that are in Apples proprietary M4P format. Aside from burning them to CDs and re-ripping (can you even get blank CD media anymore?), what options are available to remove the DRM so I can play these files in Plex or J-River?
going with the general AK theme, I'd rather not spend any $, but I'd be willing to part with a few bucks for a functioning software solution.
 
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The last time I heard someone ask that question was over 10 years ago!
If you can log into iTunes with the same user credentials as when the DRM'd tracks were purchased, I understand that you can simply delete the affected tracks, then re-download them. The freshly downloaded tracks will be DRM-free, because Apple stopped using DRM years ago.
However … don't take my word for it - I suggest you test first, with a track that you would be prepared to lose in a worst-case scenario.
 
linuxfan said:
The last time I heard someone ask that question was over 10 years ago!
If you can log into iTunes with the same user credentials as when the DRM'd tracks were purchased, I understand that you can simply delete the affected tracks, then re-download them. The freshly downloaded tracks will be DRM-free, because Apple stopped using DRM years ago.
However … don't take my word for it - I suggest you test first, with a track that you would be prepared to lose in a worst-case scenario.
Click to expand...
unfortunately, they come back m4p, same as before, but oddly enough, I can play m4p files that were given to me using Apple Music, but I can't play them on other players
 
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I just did some Googling now, and it may be that you need an iTunes Match subscription for this to work. If you're still keen to get this working it might be worth a $25 gamble to purchase a 1 year subscription?

Another option, as you mentioned, is to burn to CD, then rip back to audio files. But you don't need to burn actual CD's - instead you can burn a virtual CD -
Virtual CD RW - Intel Mac | Burningthumb.com
Make sure to watch the video HOWTO's at that site.
Be aware that if you burn to CD then re-rip using AAC or MP3 compression, the original tracks will then have incurred two stages of audio compression, with an inevitable sound quality hit. Ideally you would re-rip using a lossless form of compression, such as ALAC.
 
linuxfan said:
I just did some Googling now, and it may be that you need an iTunes Match subscription for this to work. If you're still keen to get this working it might be worth a $25 gamble to purchase a 1 year subscription?

Another option, as you mentioned, is to burn to CD, then rip back to audio files. But you don't need to burn actual CD's - instead you can burn a virtual CD -
Virtual CD RW - Intel Mac | Burningthumb.com
Make sure to watch the video HOWTO's at that site.
Be aware that if you burn to CD then re-rip using AAC or MP3 compression, the original tracks will then have incurred two stages of audio compression, with an inevitable sound quality hit. Ideally you would re-rip using a lossless form of compression, such as ALAC.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to get out of the Apple Music ecosystem, so iTunes Match is a non-starter. The virtual CD-RW is promising, shame that it's a subscription though. Every aging technology geezer has their line in the sand and mine is subscription software... :dunno:
 
Another option is third-party m4p conversion tools, such as -
M4P Converter, Convert Apple Music, M4P to MP3 on Mac & Windows
Although this is a faster and easier workflow than the burn-to-CD-then-rip technique, it still shares the issue of re-compression of the audio.

Gigantic said:
I'm trying to get out of the Apple Music ecosystem, so iTunes Match is a non-starter.
Click to expand...
Buying an iTunes Match subscription does not necessarily mean you are "enmeshing" yourself in Apple technology. You could think of it as paying Apple a one-time fee to remove their nasty DRM from your music library. Once complete, you stop using Apple software, and discontinue the subscription.
 
linuxfan said:
Another option is third-party m4p conversion tools, such as -
M4P Converter, Convert Apple Music, M4P to MP3 on Mac & Windows
Although this is a faster and easier workflow than the burn-to-CD-then-rip technique, it still shares the issue of re-compression of the audio.


Buying an iTunes Match subscription does not necessarily mean you are "enmeshing" yourself in Apple technology. You could think of it as paying Apple a one-time fee to remove their nasty DRM from your music library. Once complete, you stop using Apple software, and discontinue the subscription.
Click to expand...
It's not the technology I have a problem with, I've used Apple products almost exclusively since the 8th grade, in 1983. as I mentioned earlier, I've used iTunes/Apple Music since 2001 and I had been signed up to iTunes match, which seems to have been dropped a while back (which may partially be a cause for my frustration) but at any rate, I just want to stop giving Apple my money and I won't go further into that here. Another source of frustration is that while I have 5k albums ripped on my HD, a significant number of files have simply disappeared, vagaries of Apple's file management system and potentially iTunes Match. I'm giving up some convenience and separating what I own from general streaming, using Plex (for now) and an as yet to be determined streaming service for music (I'm thinking Qobuz; my experiment with Tidal sent me back to Apple Music after a few weeks). I will continue using my apple devices for the foreseeable future, at least until they're no longer usable, which based on past experience means that I'll likely keep my M4 laptop in rotation for the next decade- we'll see what follows; I suspect Linux may be in my future, as I loathe Windows at a level that might be past reason.
 
I'm sympathetic to all of your objections and concerns about Apple, but now your grievances act as a barrier to achieving a solution.
 
rwartner said:
Maybe sell the apple albums to finance the CDs.
Click to expand...
Not possible, and that's the central issue here; when you purchase a music download from iTunes/Apple Music you're not buying a physical copy of that music, you're paying a licence fee to hold a digital copy, plus backup copy, for your own use. This licence is non transferable.
Nothing new - it's been that way for almost 23 years.
 
solution found, albeit not entirely one I would have preferred, but it worked for the better. the application DrMare Apple Music Converter was just $14 a month and last night, I converted and downloaded the 60 albums in my Apple Music purchases in losses M4a format. Now I just have to sort though the files of the +5k plus albums I have, delete duplicates & clean everything up to archive on a spare disc and set up my plex server. good times. :rockon: the upshot is that the files are lossless, not the 256mHz lossy format that I'd purchased.
 
Gigantic said:
the upshot is that the files are lossless, not the 256mHz lossy format that I'd purchased.
Click to expand...
Please be aware that your new lossless (ALAC) m4a files have been created from m4p files which had already undergone one stage of lossy compression (AAC).
It's great that you have maintained the quality of those original m4p files, but there's no way to make them better ie. there's no way to replace the data that was lost during the first stage of compression.
Anyway, your digital music library is now freed from Apple restrictions. Win.
 
linuxfan said:
Please be aware that your new lossless (ALAC) m4a files have been created from m4p files which had already undergone one stage of lossy compression (AAC).
It's great that you have maintained the quality of those original m4p files, but there's no way to make them better ie. there's no way to replace the data that was lost during the first stage of compression.
Anyway, your digital music library is now freed from Apple restrictions. Win.
Click to expand...
my purchased files that are linked to iTunes would not convert; I had to make an Apple Music playlist and convert that, from Apple Music's lossless files; this may be ethically dubious, however, if you purchase something and don't ultimately own it, is it stealling? :dunno:
 
Tromatic said:
Glad I'm a windows user and ripped everything to wav. Good luck with your issue!
Click to expand...
That is not unique to windows. I can convert the PCM data on a CD to an interim wav format and aiff as my format of choice. This can be done on Apple and Linux.

Like the OP, I hate M$, in a most extreme way.
 
0b11011001 said:
That is not unique to windows. I can convert the PCM data on a CD to an interim wav format and aiff as my format of choice. This can be done on Apple and Linux.

Like the OP, I hate M$, in a most extreme way.
Click to expand...
As a daily user of all three OSs, my experience has been they all have quirks. I've run Linux since the kernel was at release 0.99 and there were no distros, as such. I remember when System 7.1 was the Mac's latest OS. Heck, I even remember when IBM pledged that OS/2 would be supported forever. <ahem>

For dealing with music, the simplest thing to do is buy a master license from JRiver, which lets you install to Windows, Mac and LInux. It's good to have options.
 
satkinsn said:
As a daily user of all three OSs, my experience has been they all have quirks. I've run Linux since the kernel was at release 0.99 and there were no distros, as such. I remember when System 7.1 was the Mac's latest OS. Heck, I even remember when IBM pledged that OS/2 would be supported forever. <ahem>

For dealing with music, the simplest thing to do is buy a master license from JRiver, which lets you install to Windows, Mac and LInux. It's good to have options.
Click to expand...

I would rather roll my own, than pay someone a fee for their software.

With open source, I have plenty of option, and they are all free.
 
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