How to Unprotect iTunes Music

Summary
Are your iTunes Purchased music DRM Protected? How to unprotect your purchased iTunes music? In this post, we will show you an easy way to remove DRM protection from iTunes music and convert iTunes music to unprotected MP3, M4A, FLAC, etc.

Question: “Recently I tried to use some songs purchased from iTunes in iMovie. I want to use iTunes songs as my video project BGM. But when I add some songs purchased from iTunes to iMovie, there is a prompt saying ‘5 files are protected and unavailable.’ Why is my iTunes music protected? How can I utilize old songs purchased from the iTunes Store before 2009? Is there any way to unprotect iTunes music? Thanks.” – Daniel

Before the rise of streaming Apple Music, most Apple users bought songs or albums in the iTunes store, and so did I. Although Apple finally decided to drop DRM from the iTunes music library, all songs purchased from iTunes before 2009 are DRM protected. You can only download your purchased iTunes songs on limited Apple devices by logging in to your Apple ID. And the DRM protection still remains even when downloaded to your Apple devices. On the other hand, these iTunes protected songs are only playable on up to five authorized computers. iTunes is the only software media player that can be used to access these DRM-protected iTunes music. To get the most out of it, you need to free your iTunes songs of DRM.

Here comes the questions: How do you remove protection from iTunes music? How to unprotect iTunes music? If you subscribe to iTunes Match, then you can unprotect iTunes music on it. However, the process is more complicated and inconvenient. To unprotect iTunes music and remove DRM from iTunes music, the best way is to use a professional iTunes DRM Removal. Here you can turn to TunesBank Apple Music Converter. Today, we are going to teach you an easy way to unprotect iTunes songs. After that, you can transfer or copy your iTunes music to any non-Apple devices without limits!

See also: How to Remove DRM from iTunes Music with iTunes Match

Best iTunes Music DRM Removal Tool for Mac and PC

TunesBank Apple Music Converter is the most feature-rich and powerful iTunes Music DRM Removal tool. The features are all relevant to iTunes music, Apple Music, podcasts, audiobooks and music videos, etc. All these features are pretty helpful for Apple users. This multifunctional tool not only supports to remove DRM protection from iTunes music, Apple Music and M4B/AA/AAX audiobooks, but also allows to convert them to DRM-free formats, such as MP3, M4A, FLAC, etc. In addition, it also assists you to extract audios from DRM-protected M4V movies and TV shows. With it, you can easily get rid of iTunes DRM and unprotect iTunes music with zero quality loss. Only in a few steps, you will get unprotected iTunes music and then put them on any device, player, etc.

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Features of TunesBank iTunes Music DRM Removal:

Remove DRM Protection from iTunes music, Apple Music.
Convert iTunes music to DRM-free MP3, M4A, FLAC, etc.
Support MP3, M4A, AC3, AAC, AIFF, AU or FLAC formats.
Convert Apple Music tracks, iTunes podcasts & audiobooks.
Preserve 100% lossless music quality: 256kbps, 320kbps.
Remain ID3 tags and metadata info in output MP3 files.
Up to 10X faster conversion speed on Windows and 5X on Mac.
Transfer converted iTunes MP3 songs to any device, player, etc.
Burn iTunes music to CDs or save iTunes songs to USB drive.

How to Unprotect iTunes Songs with TunesBank Apple Music Converter

Preparation: Download Purchased iTunes Music to Computer
Before removing DRM from iTunes music, you need to download your purchased iTunes songs to computer. Launch iTunes, click “Account” > “Purchased”, and tap the Download icon next to the song. When finished, close your iTunes program.

download iTunes purchased songs to computer

Step 1. Run TunesBank Apple Music Converter
First, download, install and launch TunesBank Apple Music Converter on your computer. Then iTunes app will run with it. TunesBank software will immediately load iTunes music, Apple Music, audiobooks and more media content from iTunes library.

launch itunes music converter

Step 2. Choose Protected iTunes Music
Click “My Songs” or “Playlist”, select the target songs by ticking the checkbox. Also, you cal enter the song name in the Search Box to locate it.

select protected itunes music

Step 3. Adjust Output Settings
Go to the bottom of the interface to customize the output settings and metadata according to your needs. To play iTunes music on any device and player, MP3 format is recommended. Meanwhile, you could change the output quality, bit rate, sample rate, channel, etc.

set output format

Step 4. Start Converting Protected iTunes Songs to MP3
Simply press the “Convert” button, then TunesBank software will begin to unlock DRM protection from iTunes music and convert them into MP3 files.

convert itunes music to mp3

After conversion, you can get unprotected iTunes music in “Finished” section, click “View Output File” to open the DRM-free iTunes music through Windows Media Player or QuickTime, etc.

get converted itunes music

Now you can transfer all converted iTunes music to any device and tablet for offline playback, such as MP3 players, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, iPod Classic, iRiver, Sony Walkman, PSP, Xbox, iOS, Android, smart speaker and more devices. Also, you could add iTunes music to any video editing software, or copy them to a USB drive, etc.

Extra Tips: How to Know if an iTunes Song is DRM Protected?

To check on whether your purchased iTunes songs are DRM protected or not. Just open your iTunes library and select a song, right-click on it, and select “Get Info”/ “Song Info”. If it is protected it will display “Protected AAC audio file” in the Kind option. If it is unprotected, “Purchased AAC Audio File” or “AAC Audio File” will be displayed. For more details, you can read on this article: Differences in iTunes Music File Extensions.

Protected iTunes Music:

itunes protected music

Unprotect iTunes Music

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Christina

Christina has always had great enthusiasm for writing, programming and web development. He likes writing about software and technology, his works are featured on some tech blogs or forums like Tom's Hardware, CNET, etc.