How to Remove DRM from iTunes Music in 5 Ways

Fewer and fewer Apple users know that once upon a time, iTunes music was also copy-protected by Apple's FairPlay DRM system. Apple didn't free the music sold in the iTunes store until 2009. If you ever purchased songs from the iTunes Store back before 2009, then there's a chance that all the music is protected.

Removing DRM from these "antique" songs from iTunes is the only way you can polish them up and literally "fair play" them as you want. Otherwise, you cannot play these iTunes songs on those common music players except Apple's own devices, nor can you share iTunes music with your friends or on other platforms. So, how do you remove DRM from iTunes music? Today, here we'll introduce several simple solutions to help you completely remove DRM from iTunes music.

Part 1. Best Method to Remove DRM from iTunes Music

In fact, it is a bit difficult to completely remove DRM from iTunes songs. But if you have an iTunes music DRM removal, you can quickly and efficiently delete DRM protection on iTunes songs. To help you out, we do recommend a professional iTunes DRM remover to you.

1.1 Best iTunes Music DRM Removal: ViWizard Audio Converter

ViWizard Audio Converter is the ultimate solution to remove DRM protection on whether iTunes music or Apple Music. It can remove DRM from iTunes songs and convert iTunes music to any common audio formats, including MP3, AAC, M4A, M4B, WAV, and FLAC. In addition to that, ViWizard Audio Converter supports handling the conversion of Audible and iTunes audiobooks. It can split the large audiobooks into several small episodes by chapter or by time. The following are the main features of ViWizard Audio Converter.

1.2 How to Remove DRM Protection from iTunes Songs

ViWizard Audio Converter works faster and easier than other tools even if you are not skillful at the computer. By stripping off DRM from iTunes music with ViWizard software, you can freely enjoy all your iTunes music collection on any device. Now follow the below steps to remove DRM protection from iTunes songs by using ViWizard Audio Converter.

Step 1Add iTunes Songs to ViWizard

Launch ViWizard Audio Converter on your computer and then iTunes will be opened automatically. Click the Load iTunes Library button at the top center to browse the iTunes M4P files from your library. You are also allowed to add iTunes songs to the converter by drag-and-drop.

Step 2Configure the Output Format

Once your iTunes songs are loaded successfully to the converter, you can select the output format as you like with the Format button, as well as the other settings, such as the bit rate, sample rate, channel, codec, audio quality, and output folder. Currently, ViWizard Audio Converter supports MP3, M4A, M4B, AAC, WAV, and FLAC.

Step 3Remove DRM from iTunes Music

Now click on the Convert button and it will begin to convert DRM-protected iTunes songs to MP3 or other unprotected formats at 30× faster speed. After completing the conversion, you'll get DRM-free iTunes songs playable on any MP3 player without limit. You can view all the converted iTunes songs in the history list by clicking the Converted icon.

Part 2. How to Burn iTunes Playlist to CD for DRM Removal

Although Apple doesn't provide any way to directly remove DRM from iTunes songs, it lets you get DRM-free songs by burning iTunes music to a CD instead. Best of all, it doesn't require any special CD burner as you can easily have the task done within iTunes. All you'll need is a blank CD or DVD and iTunes. Check out this tutorial and see how to burn iTunes DRM music to CD using iTunes on a Windows PC.

Step 1Insert a CD/DVD and Create Music Playlist

Launch iTunes on your Windows PC. Then insert a blank CD or DVD disc into the hard drive of your computer. In iTunes, click the File > New Playlist and add a name to the newly created playlist.

Step 2Add iTunes Songs to the New Playlist

Now select all the iTunes M4P music files that you want to remove DRM protection in your library and drag them to the newly created playlist.

Step 3Burn iTunes DRM M4P Tracks to CD

Once the M4P songs are added to the playlist, right-click the playlist and select the Burn Playlist to Disc option. iTunes will then present you a dialogue box where you can select the kind of CD/DVD that you want to burn. Make sure you select the Audio CD option. Then it will start burning iTunes music to CD automatically as expected.

Step 4Import iTunes Music from CD/DVD

The final step is to rip iTunes songs that you burned onto an audio CD, back to digital music files. Simply go to Edit > Preferences > General and click on Import Settings. To start ripping audio from CD, you should insert it into your CD drive on your computer and click the Yes button to start.

Wait for a while till the ripping process finishes. Now all the files that have been imported into your music library will be free from DRM. So, you can transfer them freely to any MP3 device like iPod touch for playback without any limit.

Although Apple canceled DRM protection on those songs purchased from iTunes after 2009, it still encodes Apple Music songs with the same technology. If you need to remove DRM from Apple Music and burn Apple Music to CD, you should follow this tutorial:

Note: The downside of burning iTunes music to CD for DRM removal is that it only lets you burn the same song once. Besides, if you have a lot of music files to burn, it will take a rather long time to finish the whole process. In case you'll have the need to convert a large collection of iTunes songs more than once, you are suggested to try other methods.

Part 3. How to Get Rid Off of iTunes Music via iTunes Match

All songs from iTunes Store now are unprotected files and in 256kbps AAC encoding. However, the previous iTunes songs which are protected by DRM can only be played on those authorized devices, like iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, HomePod, or up to 5 authorized computers. It is very inconvenient to play, sync, or share these protected iTunes songs. To remove iTunes music DRM, this method is to subscribe to iTunes Match. Here is how to strip DRM from iTunes music via iTunes Match.

How to Subscribe to iTunes Match

For Windows Users: Open iTunes and click the Store button the select iTunes Match. Fill in the bill information and choose the Subscribe button.

For Mac Users: Open Apple Music and go to the sidebar then click the iTunes Store button. Scroll to the bottom of the Store window and click iTunes Match. Fill in the bill information and chose the Subscribe button.

How to Find iTunes Protected Songs

You need to find out the protected iTunes music or audio books. Click View > Show View Options. Then choose the Kind choice under the File section. Exist this window and click the Kind button at the header to sort the songs.

How to Strip DRM from iTunes Music via iTunes Match

Now you can start to remove iTunes DRM with iTunes Match. Go to the Music section and click the Library button then select the protected iTunes songs. Delete the protected songs by pressing the Delete button on your keyboard. Next, click the iCloud Download icon to download these songs from iCloud. Finally, you get the unprotected iTunes songs.

Note: The whole process of subscribing and removing is too complicated for most of users. And you have to subscribe to iTunes Match which is useless for many users.

Part 4. How to Remove DRM from iTunes Music via Audio Recorders

Another widely used way to freely enjoy your iTunes songs is using a third-party iTunes music recorder. There are lots of audio recording tools on the internet, but not all can be used to remove DRM from iTunes. There are three tools we've selected for you to remove DRM protection from iTunes songs.

4.1 TunesKit Audio Capture: Record DRM-free iTunes Music

TunesKit Audio Capture is developed for helping users to record all kinds of audios on the computer. It can not only capture audios from online streaming music service but also can record sound from a specific application like iTunes. By using TunesKit Audio Capture, you can remove DRM from iTunes songs and get non-DRM files from iTunes while saving the original M4P iTunes to songs to MP3 or other common audio files.

Step 1. Launch TunesKit Audio Capture on your computer then click the Format icon to set the capture parameters, like the output format, codec, music quality, bit rate, and others.

Step 2. Go back to the main windows of the program and select iTunes from the program list. There you can begin to play any song on iTunes.

Step 3. Once the recording process is done, click the Save button to export the recorded iTunes songs to output directly as you like.

4.2 Requiem: Remove DRM Protection from iTunes Music

Requiem is an iTunes DRM remover designed to help you play DRM-protected music and videos from iTunes on other devices besides those which have been approved by Apple Inc. It can quickly remove digital rights management blocks and is able to decrypt most files within seconds or minutes. But Requiem only supports very old operating system. At the same time, it often fails to remove iTunes DRM due to unknown reasons. If you want to remove DRM from iTunes music, you can try using Requiem.

Step 1. Launch TunesKit Audio Capture on your computer then click the Format icon to set the capture parameters, like the output format, codec, music quality, bit rate, and others.

* Apple Software Update

* Apple Mobile Device Support

* Bonjour

* Apple Application Support 32-bit

* Apple Application Support 64-bit

Step 2. Download and install iTunes 10.7 on your computer. If you have the latest iTunes installed, you need to delete it first.

Step 3. Download Requiem 4.1 and navigate to c:/Users/~username~/Music/iTunes then rename it.

Step 4. Launch iTunes 10.7 and download iTunes songs you want to remove DRM from.

Step 5. To make the files playable in iTunes, you need to remove Authorization and then re-authorize your computer in order for the files to work.

Step 6. Close iTunes and launch Requiem, then it will automatically find DRM-protected iTunes files in your iTunes library and remove the DRM from them.

Conclusion

Among the above iTunes DRM removal solutions, using a professional iTunes DRM removal like ViWizard Audio Converter could be the best one. ViWizard Audio Converter provides higher output quality and faster speed. It is easy to use for non-savvy users. Also, you can try burning iTunes to CD or subscribing to iTunes Match for iTunes DRM removal, but both of them are old-fashion ways, which cannot help you get DRM-free iTunes music files directly. Or you can consider using an audio recorder to capture iTunes music on your computer. But it could still be time-consuming if your iTunes music library is a huge one. To sum up, using an iTunes music DRm removal is definitely the best choice among all the solutions to remove DRM from iTunes music.