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iTunes DRM Solutions?


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12 hours ago, mythrenegade said:

As I understand how iTunes Match works, you should be able to create a brand new library with no songs. Connect it to your iTunes account and download those 300 songs to this new library. They should all download as unprotected 256kbps AAC. Copy them out of this library and go back to your regular one and replace them. 

 

Joel

Joel, I did it all.  I have a blank library with all the song showing a download cloud.  I downloaded one of them and it is still protected and 128?  Not sure why the song is not unprotected and/or why it is not showing up as purchased in the iTunes store. I just might as well leave the songs as they are.

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Here is the answer I just got from Apple about this whole issue.  The songs that are not changing from 128 are no longer sold in the Apple Store or have been Mastered for iTunes, neither option has the same song as the one I purchased many years ago.  If I want to, they suggested I could repurchase the songs.  I will not tell you what I told them.  But no thanks.  The current songs are doing ok in my library.  Thanks for your help all of you and Kirk.

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On 1/5/2018 at 11:51 AM, mythrenegade said:

Woohoo!

 

now to your second question. I THINK when you add them to iTunes it should ask if you want to replace the protected ones. If it does that, they should stay in the playlists pointing to the new versions. 

Joel

So, I created a new iTunes Library called temporary,  with no songs in it.  Then turned Match on.  It showed many songs with download arrows.  I used the other computer with iTunes library and the smart playlist of songs at 128. I was able to select songs that were 256 and downloaded them to the new library media folder for music. I found 3 strange things, many of the song were checked for consolation so I deselected that before downloading.  Some of the songs in the cloud were still 128 so I did not download them.  I then reopened iTunes with the original library.  I was able to add the songs that were in the temporary library media folder.  iTune as would not add songs that were 128 if the song was already in the album.  Nor would it recognize a 256 file as a replacement, so I had to delete the 128 and replaced the 256 into any playlist. Finally, when I deleted the 128 song and moved it to trash, it was still in the album I deleted it again and a cloud showed up in the album view. I eventually noticed a check box in the message about deleting the song, that I wanted to hide song.  When I checked that, no iCloud in album view.  I now have about 95 songs that Apple claims cannot be changed to 256, some are no longer in their library and some have been designated album purchase only since I purchased it. Thanks for your advice

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9 hours ago, cambridgehank said:

iTune as would not add songs that were 128 if the song was already in the album.  Nor would it recognize a 256 file as a replacement, so I had to delete the 128 and replaced the 256 into any playlist.

That's how "Match" works. Its a bit daunting at first, but you have to actually delete the local files - obviously after they've matched, before you can then download the matched (256k) versions. I noticed a welcome improvement over some of my old mp3's, but annoyingly the odd track from an album failed to match and I was left with my original lower quality version (which Apple helpfully uploads).

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  • 4 weeks later...

MP4 is not an Apple file, it is the successor to MP3. Apple uses the MP4 wrapper for both lossy AAC flies and lossless ALAC files. You can turn the ALAC files into FLAC by using a convertor and there will be no loss, you can always convert to AIFF or WAV and totally lossless files. AAC flies are lossy and any further conversion, such as to MP3 will result in loss of quality.

 

When ITunes started offering 250kbs files instead of protected 128kbs files they gave people the opportunity to upgrade for a small fee. The new files were not DRM protected. I took advantage of that opportunity and upgraded but some files were not available as 250kbs and those were not upgraded.

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From day one when I purchased an Apple file, I converted it to WAV, removed certain tags like the "Album Sort Order" etc., then converted the WAV to FLAC and 320 kbps CBR MP3, and then tossed the WAV and Apple files.

 

It's possible to lose something converting directly from one lossy file to another lossy file, but my conversions have retained everything, and my files are totally free of anything that could be a problem in the future.

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2 hours ago, dalethorn said:

my conversions have retained everything

 

No they haven't. Every lossy conversion loses something, even though it won't necessarily be audible. I'm a bit surprised that anyone on this forum - where people debate which USB cable makes their music sound better - would think that nothing is lost in such conversions. 

I write about Macs, music, and more at Kirkville.

Author of Take Control of macOS Media Apps

Co-host of The Next Track podcast.

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3 hours ago, kirkmc said:

 

No they haven't. Every lossy conversion loses something, even though it won't necessarily be audible. I'm a bit surprised that anyone on this forum - where people debate which USB cable makes their music sound better - would think that nothing is lost in such conversions. 

 

Take a pint of water and pour it into an empty quart jar.  Make sure to pour all of it and hold the pint bottle up until all the water drains out.  Now pour the quart into the pint, and make sure to get it all.  There will be a loss, scientifically speaking.

 

BTW, the point is not to quibble a negligible loss - the point is to guarantee freedom for one's files over a lifetime.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Couldn't you get a music file format converter like Max or XLD (for Mac - not sure about Windows), convert all your DRM files to FLAC, then convert the FLAC files to Apple Lossless (ALAC)? Would the DRM survive this process? The files would be larger, but you wouldn't lose fidelity and your tags will likely stay the same. 

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3 hours ago, kirkmc said:

You can't convert tracks with DRM. The only option would be to play them and "record" them with something like Audio Hijack, which would give you essentially the same files without DRM, but you have to do this in real time. 

 

Actually with iTunes you can burn them (protected AAC’s) to an audio CD and then import that. But it’s inconvenient and a slightly lossy way to do it (compressed, uncompressed, recompressed) unless you import as ALAC but then your file size just got huge and it’s still only a 128kbos AAC quality file...

 

Joel

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38 minutes ago, kirkmc said:

It's not the exact same loss. If you decompress then recompress, the compression won't be exactly the same, and you're likely to introduce artifacts, kind of like when you photocopy a photocopy.

 

The files have to be uncompressed for Audio Hijack to intercept them, and then they are compressed however you choose (or saved as lossless). It's not merely stripping the DRM off of the compressed AAC and saving the file. That's what "playfair" did fourteen years ago, but apple patched that in short order. 

 

So your options are:

(1) Redownload a DRM-less version from Apple (if possible) - Best option, best sound, simplest

(2) Burn the files to an audio CD and import the CD using ALAC or FLAC - Second best possible sound but large file sizes

(3) Burn the files to an audio CD and import the CD using AAC or another lossy compression format

(4) Use Audio Hijack Pro ($59) to redirect the decompressed audio stream to a file, saving it using either a lossy or lossless format. This must be done in real-time due to the nature of how Audio Hijack works.

(5) I suppose you could actually take the analog audio out from your device and run it into an Analog to Digital converter again. This is the worst of all options and also slow...

 

That said, the recompression isn't nearly as bad as you'd think, it's just not ideal. For MOST people, the type that don't hang out at any website with the word "audiophile" in the title, it will be just fine. For those of us that obsess over such details, we'll take the loss of disk space to import as either ALAC for FLAC...

 

Joel

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I think the easiest solution is to burn a CD, then re-rip it. The only flaw is making FLAC versions of AAC source files, eg not lossless copies of the 16bit 44.1khz recording, but lossless copies of the 256Kbps AAC rip. I'm not sure how bad all these conversions are... it's probably best to just buy a used CD, and rip it.

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