At the moment when you subscribe to Apple Music streaming service, you should be clear about the restrictions of Apple Music, such as you can only access the streaming music from devices registered with your Apple Music account, the tracks would become unplayable after canceling the subscription, and the most annoying limit - you are not allowed to transfer the downloaded songs from Apple Music to USB or other devices and players.
So what if you want to copy the Apple Music songs to play on your car radio using a USB flash drive? Don't worry. This article will guide you to easily transfer songs and playlists from Apple Music to USB stick in a few clicks only.
Part 1. Can You Directly Save Apple Music to a USB Drive?
Many people love the idea of saving their favorite Apple Music tracks to a USB drive to play them anywhere, like in your car or on another device. It sounds easy, but there's a problem. Apple Music is a streaming service, so you don't actually own the music files. You only have access to them as long as you have an active subscription or buy the music.
When you download music from Apple Music, the files are saved on your device in a special format like AAC or M4P. These formats are designed to work with Apple devices but not with other devices. Even if you find these files on your computer, you can't just copy them to a USB drive and expect them to play elsewhere.
The files are protected by something called DRM (Digital Rights Management). This means they're locked to Apple devices and won't work on other systems. This protection helps you access your music as long as you're subscribed, but it also makes it hard to save Apple Music files directly to a USB drive. The good news is that there's a way around this. If you really want to save your Apple Music to a USB drive, you need a special tool like ViWizard Apple Music Converter. This tool removes the DRM protection and converts your music files into a format like MP3 that can be played on any device. So, while you can't directly save Apple Music files to a USB drive, using ViWizard can make it possible to back up your music wherever you want.
A full-featured audio converting tool that allows you to convert some special audio files, including Apple Music, iTunes songs and audiobooks, Audible audiobooks, as well as, more than 100 kinds of common audio files to MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, WAV, and M4B to listen anywhere.
If you're still interested in finding those music files, here are the storage locations, but remember that the music files you download from Apple Music are meant to work only within the Apple ecosystem, so we still recommend ViWizard Apple Music Converter for help:
Apple Music allow premium users to download music for offline playing. Do you know where the downloads Apple Music stored on your device? Let's have a look.
Tip: You can check the file location by going to the Music or iTunes app > Edit > Preferences > Advanced > iTunes Media folder location.
Part 2. How to Copy Apple Music to USB Directly
If you want to transfer your Apple Music files directly to a USB drive, you can do so with tracks that you've already uploaded to Apple Music or added yourself. Note that this method only works for files you've added personally. Files downloaded through an Apple Music subscription and stored in iCloud are protected by DRM and aren't directly accessible for transfer. For those files, you'd need to use a tool like ViWizard Apple Music Converter.
- Open the Apple Music app on your desktop.
- Find the songs you want to copy. These should be files you've added yourself.
- Right-click (or Control-click) on a song and select "Show in Windows Explorer" (on Windows) or "Show in Finder" (on macOS). This will open the folder where the files are stored. Alternatively, you can drag and drop them to your desktop for easier access.
- Connect your USB drive to your computer.
- Open the folder where your music files are located.
- Select the files you want to transfer and drag them to the USB drive folder, or copy and paste them.
Part 3. Tools You'll Need to Save Apple Music to USB
Expect for the local files put into the software, Apple Music users may want to save the exclusives to Apple Music to a USB drive for a backup. To save Apple Music content to USB, it's essential to remove the Digital Rights Management, which enables users to full control of the Apple Music content.
ViWizard Apple Music Converter is a dedicated software designed to convert and download Apple Music files to USB in universally playable formats like MP3. It helps computer users to convert and download various types of Apple contents, including Apple Music, iTunes music, podcasts, audiobooks, Audible audiobooks and even the local files put into the iTunes software. By using ViWizard Apple Music Converter, you've found an easy, fast, and secure way to save your Apple Music into your USB for a permanent backup.
Key Features of ViWizard Audio Converter
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- Convert songs, albums, and playlists from Apple Music to MP3
- Remove DRM protection from Apple Music, iTunes, and Audible
- Save the converted audios with the original quality and ID3 tags
- Support the conversion of up to 100 audio formats to others
The converted files can be played on a wide range of devices and media players beyond the Apple Music app and Apple devices that support the chosen output format (e.g., MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, M4A, M4B). As it strips away the DRM protection, allowing you to freely transfer and play them anytime, anywhere.
Step 1Select Apple Music Content
Launch ViWizard Audio Converter, wait until it launches or relaunches iTunes to load the whole iTunes Library. Click on the Add Music button > Library, Audiobooks or Apple Music to add Apple Music contents to convert. You can also drag and drop them from iTunes app to ViWizard's main interface.
Step 2Configure output parameters
Once the music contents are added to ViWizard, click the Format tab at the bottom > Format Setting, then select the compatible output format with the devices via a USB or iTunes as MP3, AAC or WAV. After that, click OK to save this change.
Step 3Convert and Downlaod Apple Music Content
Click Convert to start the conversion at a 30x speed. Once the conversion completes, you can open the Converted menu > Search to navigate to a converted music file or click Open next to the output location to go to the whole output folder.
Step 4Copy Apple Music to USB
Based on the format setting, you can choose to back up your iTunes Library with the converted files in MP3, AAC or MAC or transfer them to a USB drive from local for other devices and platforms. Right-click the converted Amazon Music file or the whole "Music" folder, then Copy. Go to the USB drive, then right-click > Paste to transfer the converted Apple Music to it.
Part 4. Part 4. How to Save Apple Music to USB with ViWizard
You can carry your Apple Music library, including playlists, metadata, and music files, with you on a USB drive and access it on different computers with iTunes easily. For starters you need to consolidate your iTunes library files, including the "iTunes Media" folder and relevant files. Then you can directly copy them to a USB drive. After that, you can access your Apple Music library on the USB drive and play the songs on a compatible device or media player that supports the format (iTunes purchased 256kbps in AAC).
Consolidating your iTunes library ensures that you have both the music files and metadata readily available on the USB drive, and allows you to play the songs on specific devices.
- On your Windows or Mac computer running macOS Mojave or earlier, open the iTunes app.
- Go to File > Library > Organize Library.
- To consolidate files, check the box next to "Consolidate files."
- Click OK. iTunes will copy the related media files into the "iTunes Media" folder.
- Find and locate the iTunes Media folder on your Windows or Mac computer:
- On macOS computers:
/Users/[Your username]/Music/Music/Media/Music/ - On Windows PCs:
C:\Users\[Your username]\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media
- On macOS computers:
- Locate the consolidated iTunes library files.
- Plug your USB drive into an available USB port on your computer.
- Copy the "iTunes Media" folder and related files to your USB drive, including the iTunes Library.itl file, iTunes Music Library.xml file (optional).
Conclusion
In summary, you can copy your Apple Music library to a USB drive using three methods: directly copying downloaded files (simple but limited), converting songs with third-party software for compatibility, or consolidating your library (complete but needs more space). You're highly recommended to take advantage of ViWizard Apple Music Converter to have the full control of your Apple Music library.
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An experienced writer of ViWizard who is obsessed about technology, music, movie, and software.
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