Converting a protected iTunes file to mp3
Long time, no blog. I don’t know where the days are going at the moment. I’m always either too busy, tired or weak to do any of the googol of things on my mental to do list. I just came across a handy program that helped me get something done for once, so thought I would blog about it before I forgot!
I downloaded my first song from iTunes today. I always thought that the songs you downloaded would be yours to play where you wanted; just like owning the single but without the physical disc and sleeve. Then I realised that the file was in fact in m4p format, which meant it was a protected file. This would not have been a big deal except for the fact that I had downloaded the song for my Mum, who wanted to listen to it on a standard CD on her stereo.
Luckily that’s where JHymn comes in. This small program converts protected m4p or m4b audio files to either standard iTunes m4a files or, better again, mp3 files. It claims to convert the files without any loss in quality and the end result sounded pretty good to me. Well, as good as you could expect a Simon Webbe song to sound! 
I love my iPod but I don’t love the proprietary file formats and iTunes hassle that go with it. I often wish I could just download songs onto it from anywhere on any machine. Regardless of how tricky they ever make it all, I’d still take the rather fabalicious iPod nano any day of the week
September 12th, 2005 at 9:24 am
I hate those “protected” file formats. It’s that whole Trusted Computing thing with just doesnt sit right with me.
September 12th, 2005 at 9:42 am
It’s a bit of a joke really that you have bought the rights to listen to the song, but only on your iPod and not on your home stereo.
Stupid Digital Rights Management!
September 16th, 2005 at 1:27 pm
DRM = Digital Restrictions Management
That’s the way they want it to be anyhow.
October 12th, 2005 at 5:13 am
Thanks for the tip, but if you were just going to burn the cd for your mom, couldn’t you have just made a playlist in iTunes then burned that through iTunes?
Also DRM SUCKS!!!! And you know when its bad when the artists do not want it on there cds but the studios put it on there anyway (ie. switchfoot)
October 26th, 2005 at 7:42 pm
hi jason,
sorry for taking so long to say thanks!
being a very novice itunes user (despite having o’reilly’s ipod hacks on my shelf!) i did not know such things were possible - silly me
mind you, if it’s so easily done in itunes why bother putting all the protection on them??
November 28th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
I just got my 2000t and all of my songs are skipping in iTunes, and I cant figure out why. If someone could help me out and tell me how to fix this I would really appreciate it because its driving me crazy. Thanks for the replys.
February 11th, 2007 at 2:51 am
Is there any way to allow your user name on more than 5 computers? That number will obviously be out of date soon in the grand scheme of things. The age of computers and the amount of computers households have make this number seem small. Playing music from all of your computers will no longer be allowed.
March 12th, 2007 at 3:44 am
For some reason, the songs I unlock don’t appear in the folder. Help?
Thanks
March 21st, 2007 at 12:07 am
well i got jhymm. and it does not work one bit, i purchased a tune from itunes, and wanted to put it on my phone, but as its protected no joy, so i looked online for a solution, and came up time after time jhymm, so i thought i would give it a try seeing as its says it can do the conversion no problems, unless im doing something wrong i dont know the problem but it wont convert at all for me.jhymm mentioned something about reforcing my itunes to redo the entire library, no way am i doing that again as it screwed my ipod but i got it repaired under warranty luckily.
March 29th, 2007 at 8:35 am
NoteBurner is highly recommended!
It always works well with fast speed!