Remove m4p from Australian itunes purchase?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by silsurf, Jul 16, 2017.

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  1. silsurf

    silsurf Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    A friend of mine asked for my help in a very odd situation.

    He is in Australia for work and he wanted to purchase the Rodriquez Rocks Live Australia which to my understanding is only available digitally in Australia itunes.

    So, he had a a coworker purchase it and thought he would then move it over to his computer. Turns out the files have DRM on them and then this happened.

    They were purchased through Apple Music and not the iTunes Store. They do not respond to conversion or allow to being ripped to CD for importation, even on the person who purchased them's laptop. These are the two ways that are customarily used to remove DRM from files you have purchased and use them on your own devices.

    What can he do? I looked around for a way to strip the DRM (they are his files), but all software is linked to itunes and cannot remove DRM on its own.

    The young people he is working with (as a side note) really have no thought or idea about why someone would want to "own" music, they only stream these days.
     
  2. I have used Audacity to record songs from Youtube with my laptop, it may work for you. The simple fact is, if I can play it, I can record it!
     
    Rick Bartlett likes this.
  3. Gretsch6136

    Gretsch6136 Forum Resident

    He should just go buy the CD!
     
  4. silsurf

    silsurf Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    that is his plan, but he has already paid for the files once, it seems he should be able to have a copy.
     
  5. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    this is exactly partially the reason some of us cannot stand Apple, iTunes and all that junk.
    they like to have control on 'your' media usage, even if you've paid for it.
    I avoid anything Apple like a plague.
    (you'll have to find an audio converter, or as suggested, re-record the songs in real time if you must,
    to another format, you really can't go wrong in .mp3 or .wav files)
    Try and download the free version of freemake.
    That should solve your prob.
     
    McLover, qwerty and Big-Faced-Child like this.
  6. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    If the file is bought using another Apple ID than that of your friend, the original buyer should allow your friend to login to that Apple ID on his computer. Thus allowing his computer to play the file bought by someone else. There's a menu commando for it in iTunes.

    BTW, I'm not sure but iTunes files are DRM free for years now in my country. So either this is a very old file, the Australian store is still selling DRMed files or something completely different is going on.
     
  7. ShallowMemory

    ShallowMemory Classical Princess

    Location:
    GB
    A few years ago I did this and so long as you keep it away from iTunes it worked:
    The p stands for protected which in the early days of iTunes all the tracks were.
    To fix it right click rename and just change the p on the file extension .m4p to read .m4a and save.
     
  8. rfs

    rfs Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lansing, MI USA
    Back when I was still using iTunes and had to convert some of my old m4ps I used to burn a CD and then rip it back to mp3. The results didn't sound that bad, surprisingly enough.
     
  9. BayouTiger

    BayouTiger Forum Resident

    Songs are not purchased via Apple Music. These are just cached on the hard drive for off line use and are DRMed because they are not purchased at all. Spotify, Tidal and all other subscription services do the same. As usual this is not some evil plot but I'm pretty certain someone is (maybe unknowingly) trying to give someone files that they do not actually own.

    As to the m4p extension. You can just change it to m4a as mentioned to make no Apple players recognize it unless it is an old file bought in the days of DRM and never upgraded to the newer DRM free ( and higher quality) file.
     
    SamS likes this.
  10. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    You're way off base here. For the situation the OP is describing, his friend never owned the file - at all. Apple Music downloads are an enhancement to their streaming/on-demand platform. You have access to tens of millions of songs, and can cache them locally for listening, when not connected to the internet. You don't own them, you pay $10/month for the privilege.

    The most appropriate analogy would be as follows:
    • You like to watch Game of Thrones on HBO.
    • You pay HBO a monthly fee to watch shows such as this.
    • You record Game of Thrones to watch at your convenience, via a box you get from you cable/satellite company.
    • You cancel HBO, and your cable/satellite service.

    The episode of Game of Thrones you recorded is not "yours", nor do you get access to it after you stop paying HBO/cable/satellite.

    If you want to own the show/song/book/whatever, buy it on Blu-ray/CD/paperback, etc!
     
  11. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    maybe, but your talking to an old bloke here, when I buy something I want something to show for it, not a monthly or yearly
    subscription on lease of the music I'm paying for.
    why would one want to keep paying for something over and over again once you've paid for the privilege?
    I'm old school, and I like it that way, if I buy, I want some hard copy of it at least, not a reminder of when my next subscription is due.
     
  12. BayouTiger

    BayouTiger Forum Resident

    Then a subscription service is not for you. That's got absolutely nothing to do with the situation being discussed in the thread.
     
  13. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    I agree that if we are talking about Apple Music there is no ownership of music files. You only have a subscription to listen to (streaming) music. Music is only stored locally to facilitate offline listening, and you can only use those local files as long as your paying for your Apple Music subscription.

    Please ignore my previous reply. I thought the OP was talking about an iTunes purchase.
     
  14. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    I used to be like you for a long time, but now I do both. I pay the monthly Apple Music subscription to listen to any music, any time. But if I really like what I hear, I'll still buy it on a physical format.

    Doing this for 6 months now, made me realise that about half of my CD collection is about
    A) albums that I like to hear once in a while, and where I don't really care about SQ when listening.
    B) post 1995 albums that are victims of the loudness war, and the streaming version isn't better sounding, but also not any worse.

    These are CDs that I can probably put in secondary storage, or just get rid of, because the streaming variant is "good enough".

    The other half of the collection is where the true physical format curation effort needs to go. :D
     
    SamS likes this.
  15. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    This, x1000. Plus, often times there's a "hot new release" that I'll want to hear, but maybe I don't need to spend $12 on the (crappy sounding) CD... I just gorge on it via Apple Music for a few weeks until I'm sick of it. If I fall in love with it, I'll buy it (often the LP version). Otherwise, it's just a great way to sample 30,000,000 songs I'll never come close to buying.
     
    Yost likes this.
  16. BayouTiger

    BayouTiger Forum Resident

    I agree. I could part with about 80% of my trove of CD's I used to accumulate lots as I would walk in to a pawn shop (especially) near a military base and just offer them X for their whole rack. Get lots of stuff that I dont care about, abut usually a net of very little overall. Same with thrift store hauls. Now, with Roon I seldom even notice which songs are mine vs Tidal's and it's actually surprising how many times I click on the "Show Tidal Version" because it's better than the CD I have in ,y library.

    But then we've drifted off topic........(again) :)
     
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