1. alexplantman's Avatar
    I did a search on here and noticed I have to remove the DRM from my itunes music so I can load it in my memory card and listen to it on my Bold. I downloaded iTurns, and it is not user freindly..

    What else is out there, free, that I can use to convert these DRM fiies and copy them to my media card and listen in my media card?
    03-07-09 04:10 AM
  2. bdube's Avatar
    i spent about a month looking for a free way to do this, i ended up buying a program called tunebite which is my second most used app on my computer now.

    it even saves all your music in folders by artist and then album when it is finished converting
    03-07-09 04:36 AM
  3. tmclean3's Avatar
    I did a search on here and noticed I have to remove the DRM from my itunes music so I can load it in my memory card and listen to it on my Bold. I downloaded iTurns, and it is not user freindly..

    What else is out there, free, that I can use to convert these DRM fiies and copy them to my media card and listen in my media card?
    Using iTunes you can simply burn a playlist to a CD of the DRM songs you wish to convert. When the burn is complete simply use iTunes to rip the same songs back to your computer as mp3. The DRM will be removed.
    03-07-09 05:29 AM
  4. alexplantman's Avatar
    OMG, that totally sucks, so basically Itunes is saying it's better to download your own music from bitorents web pages than paying for legit music from them I guess. Since only itunes music has this crap added to it.

    I have a feeling that the music you download on the web, ie limew.ire / pirat.bay, etc is converted when you import to itunes?

    Copying to cd and back is not realistic for me...to fill just the 2 gig card is over 400 songs...uggh...that's a lot of cd's
    03-07-09 06:05 AM
  5. alexplantman's Avatar
    i spent about a month looking for a free way to do this, i ended up buying a program called tunebite which is my second most used app on my computer now.

    it even saves all your music in folders by artist and then album when it is finished converting
    Download dot com indicates that tunebite can record music from fm.com etc.? Is that correct? Can it record music from online radios, etc? Any other features worth the $30 or just drm?
    03-07-09 06:14 AM
  6. btdown's Avatar
    My advice is DO NOT EVER buy anything from Itunes. Buy it from some of the other online vendors who sell DRM-free music, or buy CD's and rip them to MP3 at the quality you desire, plus you "own" them and can transfer them to different devices. There are many free-ripping programs out there. I still cannot understand why anyone would buy stuff from itunes.
    03-07-09 06:30 AM
  7. a_silent_song's Avatar
    I still cannot understand why anyone would buy stuff from itunes.
    Convenience, maybe? And considering iTunes stripped DRM from their music now, it's very handy when you just want a song or two and you don't want to buy the whole album or steal it from somewhere.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    03-07-09 08:56 AM
  8. MarkusALC's Avatar
    Itunes has more or less removed DRM from their music, which is the reason why I am still using it. Trouble is, two days ago I downloaded some music from their store and it came as .m4p, i.e. with DRM. I am using my 8900 as my primary media player and buying for songs that you cannot use with your primary media player is just lousy. Now, iTunes offers you to upgrade to iTunes Plus, which is basically the same us letting them resend your bought items without DRM. You can only do this for your whole library at once (paying .30$ I think per song) and not per file. I did this, and spent some money on songs that I actually did not want to upgrade, but maybe now I am "free" and will hopefully never again download **** in .m4p.
    I really hate that you do not know in which format your song will be if you buy it! iTunes is pretty convenient but still only if you use it exclusively with an ipod, which is just not an option for me.
    03-07-09 10:21 AM
  9. alexplantman's Avatar
    Bottom line, what should we use to convert other than paying any money to itunes per song?

    There are a few options $$ on download.com but ...
    03-08-09 12:02 PM
  10. amazinglygraceless's Avatar
    Bottom line, what should we use to convert other than paying any money to itunes per song?

    There are a few options $$ on download.com but ...
    SoundTaxi..
    03-08-09 12:45 PM
  11. Steve_S_T's Avatar
    My advice is DO NOT EVER buy anything from Itunes. Buy it from some of the other online vendors who sell DRM-free music, or buy CD's and rip them to MP3 at the quality you desire, plus you "own" them and can transfer them to different devices. There are many free-ripping programs out there. I still cannot understand why anyone would buy stuff from itunes.
    Me neither, I'm not a big fan of iTunes (nor Apple any more to be honest - they're as ubiquitous as Microsoft imo). I get good value songs OR albums from E Music on a monthly subscription. The only drawback with them being that although they have some major artists they don't carry any output from major labels, probably because they don't overcharge for the music which iTunes, Amazon etc do.
    03-17-09 04:14 AM
  12. wnm's Avatar
    Don't beat up Apple and iTunes too badly. DRM was the only way to get iTunes started. Without it,there would have been no iTunes, iPods (and other MP3 players) and 75+ years of recorded music would still be stuck on non-portable media, and ultimately the digital music world and technology would have been put back several years. It's a decision the major labels have come to rue as they clearly could have been making a lot more money with multiple price points that iTunes has instituted.

    As posted, there are a number of ways of getting rid of DRM. One more step hardly seems burdensome.
    03-17-09 06:52 AM
  13. Steve_S_T's Avatar
    Don't beat up Apple and iTunes too badly. DRM was the only way to get iTunes started. Without it,there would have been no iTunes, iPods (and other MP3 players) and 75+ years of recorded music would still be stuck on non-portable media, and ultimately the digital music world and technology would have been put back several years. It's a decision the major labels have come to rue as they clearly could have been making a lot more money with multiple price points that iTunes has instituted.

    As posted, there are a number of ways of getting rid of DRM. One more step hardly seems burdensome.
    You'll have to explain that to me I'm afraid. As far as I recall mp3 was available, as were portable mp3 players, several years before iPod and iTunes were available and hip. I'm sure Apple may have been involved in development process at some point, but ripping cd was commonplace in the late nineties, whereas (iirc) iPod etc only came to market in the noughties. That's why I really can't figure how you can say that "75+ years of recorded music would still be stuck on non-portable media, and ultimately the digital music world and technology would have been put back several years" without Apple corps and it's products when all that was in place BEFORE iMania. In fact I reckon you could make an argument that drm and Apple's desire to sell one track for use by one person on one player has actually set the digital music industry back, mainly because that possessive, greedy attitude appealed to record companies who felt that they would be able to continue ripping people (and artists) off just as they had in the vinyl and early cd age.

    As for one more step being burdensome, I suppose that's relative to the amount of digital music you're buying isn't it?
    03-17-09 07:11 AM
  14. jperro's Avatar
    tunebite +1, works like a charm
    03-17-09 07:14 AM
  15. wnm's Avatar
    You'll have to explain that to me I'm afraid. As far as I recall mp3 was available, as were portable mp3 players, several years before iPod and iTunes were available and hip. I'm sure Apple may have been involved in development process at some point, but ripping cd was commonplace in the late nineties, whereas (iirc) iPod etc only came to market in the noughties. That's why I really can't figure how you can say that "75+ years of recorded music would still be stuck on non-portable media, and ultimately the digital music world and technology would have been put back several years" without Apple corps and it's products when all that was in place BEFORE iMania. In fact I reckon you could make an argument that drm and Apple's desire to sell one track for use by one person on one player has actually set the digital music industry back, mainly because that possessive, greedy attitude appealed to record companies who felt that they would be able to continue ripping people (and artists) off just as they had in the vinyl and early cd age.

    As for one more step being burdensome, I suppose that's relative to the amount of digital music you're buying isn't it?
    I agree that the process set everything back, owing to greedy record companies.

    I cant really speak to early mp3 players, but clearly the iPod is what rocketed the portable music player business and use.

    I don't consider CD's to be portable media even though I have an old portable CD player gathering dust.

    I admit that I didn't start purchasing music on line until I got an iPod. I used iTunes and then Amazon so I don't know what earlier sites were available for purchasing music.

    If you read about the history of DRM, you'll find that if iTunes and the iPod had not been such a huge success, we might well be paying much more for online music, and the RIAA would still be extorting fines from the parents of kids downloading music and video.

    My main point was that before jumping all over Apple, consider that with out the deal Apple made, we might not have what we currently take for granted.
    03-17-09 08:55 AM
  16. Steve_S_T's Avatar
    I don't consider CD's to be portable media even though I have an old portable CD player gathering dust.

    If you read about the history of DRM, you'll find that if iTunes and the iPod had not been such a huge success, we might well be paying much more for online music, and the RIAA would still be extorting fines from the parents of kids downloading music and video.
    There may be a middle road between our two standpoints here, but whilst you think I'm Apple bashing (I am) without good reason (I'm not), I would say you're taking a look at them through rose tinted spectacles.

    Firstly you misread my point about cds I think. I'm not saying that they were particularly good for listening to on the move (I tried the portable cd player - nightmare ), my point was that you could rip one and put it onto an mp3 player long before iTunes came along, so "75+ years of recorded music" was definitely not "stuck on non-portable media" even before Jobs and co entered the market.

    Secondly I haven't found reference to hoe DRM has given us lower prices than we otherwise would have. Do you have a link please that explains that argument? For my part I do know that DRM ONLY hurts people who buy music, not illegal downloaders, so is kind of pointless in that sense, and that Steve Jobs only applied it to appease the big record companies who he needed on board to get iTunes off the ground. So that was thw ork of two money hungry parties carving it up amongst themselves, not for the common good, and that's why I remin at a loss to understand your point that these corporations combined to keep prices down. To further confuse my take on the "digi downloads are cheaper because of iTunes" argument, how is that a song I can buy legally for �0.20 on eMusic would cost me �0.79 on iTunes?

    Look forward to a pointer to further info on that Apple DRM keeping costs low debate.
    Last edited by Steve_S_T; 03-17-09 at 09:56 AM.
    03-17-09 09:53 AM
  17. alexplantman's Avatar
    tunebite +1, works like a charm
    Is it free?
    04-17-09 09:46 PM
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