OS X Hax

Regarding Phase 1...
Although an AIFF file will be created, I don't believe it is the same quality as the AIFF you would get from burning the AAC to a CDROM.
iMovie is limited in it's ability to handle high sample rates. More experienced individuals than me should be able to clarify.

If you look at an m4p file by opening it in text edit, you will see the header contains information about your name and account. After that, there is some data that looks very consistent, and then a third section, which I assume is an embedded album cover. It should be pretty easy to figure out how to remove this header, and I'm sure also that someone will (I bet if you could figure out precisely where the music begins, you could even copy and paste the header from an m4a).

EVERYBODY who reads this, please send feedback to Apple, and tell them that there ARE legitimate uses for the technology of sharing over IP addresses.

It's an Apple mpeg4 encoded .mov file that you can export to aiff using the quicktime api. iMovie is surely just using the quicktime api for importing and exporting. In other words, the AIFF file export from iMovie is going to be as good as quicktime can do -- adding an extra layer of burning and ripping certainly isn't going to help matters because quicktime has to convert it to pcm whether you burn it to a disc or write it to a cd.

The H0ly Grail here is figuring out how to extract the keys from iTunes or an iPod to remove the encryption of the AAC encoded data and using that to build an unprotected AAC file. It's fundamentally the same problem as writing a working DeCSS, albeit with appeal to a much smaller audience (people who bought music from Apple, and aren't happy being limited to listening to it in iTunes or their iPod)

I was able to use Audio Hijack to create an AIFF.

I used Sound Studio to create an AIFF. Very quick.

Where there's a will, there's a way!!

Use audio hijack pro to hijack itunes or whatever mp3 player your using. The pro version even saves it as an mp3.

You don't need to go through all the trouble with iMovie if you just want AIFF's the easy way.

Just drag the m4p's into Toast from iTunes and it makes them AIFF's on the fly where you can search in your Toast Cache folder for them or burn them directly to CD (even with an external) hope this helps... it sure has mde my life easier and it doesn't loose much quality either! :)

Hello All,

I purchased one of the new iPOds and had to return it three times for repair or replacement. Unfortunately or fortunately the rplaced it everytime. Well, the problem is that all the songs I bought at the iTunes store have maxed their device limit. So now they can only play off my box and I can't get them to my iPod. Is there anyway to unlock them from this evil system. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

All the Best,

R

regarding the following quote: "It should be pretty easy to figure out how to remove this header, and I'm sure also that someone will (I bet if you could figure out precisely where the music begins, you could even copy and paste the header from an m4a)."

i don't believe it will be so easy to separate the audio from the header. i'm no expert, but being a curious occasional tinkerer, i took a random chunk of audio data from an m4p file, and pasted it into the middle of an m4a. of course the m4a played as usual, but when it got to the spot where i inserted audio from the m4p, that part was just silent. which leads me to believe that the testing process actually allows the data to be decoded, rather than just blocking the path as an isolatable device.
all these decoding methods discussed work of course, if you purchased the songs yourself. i guiltily admit to being interested in finding a way to get around the m4p file even if that's not the case.

Ric,

My friend, either your message is evil FUD or you are doing something very very wrong.

iPod does not count towards the 3 PC limit, so you could download your m4p files to 1000 iPods and still be OK

I'm having a strange problem I'm hoping someone has seen. I have an iPod and iTunes (both with most current OS). My computer is XP. I downloaded 2 songs from iTunes, both are protected aac format. My iPod is on the iTunes "Source" column but I can't put either of the songs on my iPod. I've tried updates, patches, reinstalling but to no avail. I can copy other file formats (MP3, etc) to the iPod. What Gives??

This works on Windows, i don't know about Apples. I found a way to go from M4P to WAV with no loss of quality. Get a program that records line in audio. In recording audio settings (sound mixer), change the select from LineIN to WaveOut. Then just use iTunes to play it and the program to record the output at 44Khz 16Bit Stereo as recording mode. Then just convert the WAV to MP3. May not be quick but it works perfectly.

Use Toast if you have it. Add the m4p files as Audio CD tracks, save the disc as an image, mount the image (mounts as a CD), then rip the CD with iTunes. Works like a charm, and you don't even have to waste media.

I don' have Toast or AudioHiJack or Sound Studio, or anything outside of iTunes as far as audio goes. I want to burn the music I downloaded from the iTunes Store and listen to it on a CD in my car though. It seems so unfair that I paid for this music and I can't do that. I tried the iMovie thing, and the media folder has m4ps in it. no luck with Quicktime. Anyone have any suggestions? Maybe I'm not doing the iMovie thing properly. I may need a step-by-step. Please help! I've also downloaded SLIMP3, but they say that they can't do iTunes Store songs in the "readme".

Thx in advance for any suggestions. They will be so appreciated! :)

Regarding the comment to put the m4p file in Toast and pull the .aif file out of the toast cache - THIS IS EXCELLENT!! WORKS PERFECTLY!!! THANKS! I'm doing a wedding video for myself and my fiance - and final cut pro doesn't recognize the m4p format, and if I save-as the m4p to a quicktime movie and import that, it sounds like crap - so this trick worked like a charm.

There is something fundamentally wrong here. Apple appreciates its customer base more than Microsoft does. So while Bill Gates wants to control the world, Steve Jobs doesn't want to piss off the last Mac-holdout consumers. This means giving us what WE want, not what the record industry wants. Even if someone programmed an m4p decoder, the government and the RIAA have enough power to see that easy access to one never comes up on a google search.

Sabrina:

Go to then iTunes Help.
Under 'Burning a CD'

In short, all you need to do is go to edit-> preferences and and under the burning tab select the correct format(audio cd). Then press the burn button at the top right corner of the app.

The help gives step by step directions

Now if someone can tell me why bring up the help it tells my there is no CD in the drive, I'd be happy.
I mean it's correct, but why does it tall me twice?

I purchased a song from itunes on a windows2000 pc at work. when i got home to my winME pc, i couldn't play the cd. i could only use it on a regular cd player UNTIL...

...i opened nero burning rom. nero was able to read the cd. i burned a copy of the cd and was able to play the copy on any of my pc's even though none of them have itunes. i could have also made a mp3, wav, or whatever cd before burning but i just chose to make an audio cd for now just see if it would work.

one thing i noticed is that my creative cd player could play the original cd that i burned from the itunes machine but my plextor could not. the plextor did play the copied cd though. go figure.

Ok, I downloaded from iTunes, burned a CD in Nero and it won't play in my car!!! Aaaaaahhhhh!!!! Can someone PLEASE give me a SIMPLE (I am a non-techie) way to convert the M4P to a format that will play in my car? PLEASE, PLEASE!!!!

I was wrong!! I fumbled and fumbled and finally found thru the help how to download from iTunes to an audio disk that plays in my car!! I am happy!! LOL iTunes does allow you to download files that are portable. Happy Holidays to you all!!

I just spent almost $400 on a Creative MP3 Player. I chose that over the Ipod because it gave me 40 Gigs and Ipod only 20 Gigs. The problem is I can't get the M4P files that I downloaded from ITunes into my new MP3 Player. I am so pissed. This is why I bought it. How do I convert the M4P's into MP3 files??? Please help.

See comment Posted by: Terry at October 21, 2003 06:41 AM - for Windows - it works! I used Cool Edit Pro... don't know if it's a true 1:1 copy but it sounds fine

Something interesting for PC Users! Whilst running through my metacrawler I first came here- and then thought, WHAT ABOUT A SIMPLE MP4 CONVERTER? so i search, and BINGO! There it is provided by my trusty dBpowerAMP- all avaible in a trusty little codec... I'm not sure this will help mac users (the only reason i'm not a mac user at the moment is cause my imac's unplugeddd) unless you managed to get your hands on a virtual pc -- have fun! (so far i've managed to convert my "The Last tour on Earth" cd by manson- *sigh* and to think, they could have just kept iTunes converting to mp3 and saved us all this trouble...)

good luck!
Regards, SeFierEnMoi

Unfortunately, that's not relevant. Such a converter would be able to convert unencrypted AAC files, but then so can Quicktime Pro or even iTunes itself (I think).

What this is about is ripping the DRM off of the protected AAC files you get from the iTunes music store. The closest anyone has come to an answer is the AAC stream ripper code DVD Jon put up, but even that is not a complete answer.

i use a PC, but something useful i've been doing is taking an ordinary headphone line splitter and plugging it into my sound card LINE OUT port. then a 1/8" male-male cable is connected to one end of the line splitter, and the other end of that 1/8" male-male cable is connected to the LINE IN port on the soundcard. speakers/headphones are plugged into the other plug on the line splitter. when a song is played, the signal is looped back into the sound card where a line-in recording program can easily pick it up. there's virtually no loss in quality, and the only limitations are what formats your line-in recording software can record to.

Just got an mp3 read cd player for my car, and I download "bought" music from Apple and when I tried to burn it to listen to it in the car it didn't work. All the real mp3 files worked fine.

Apple is now Microsoft. They have been assemulated.

It was just to perfect and of course it did not work.

I'm sure I can jump through hoops but I didn't purchase this is have to jump through hoops.

Apple, get a life.

1. First, learn how to spell "Assimilated".

2. If you burn m4p CDs as audio CDs rather than MP3 CDs, they will work just fine. Apple has never said anything different. You can't blame them because you didn't read the instructions.

3. Everyone who keeps posting that you can simply burn M4Ps to audio CDs and "break" the encryption is missing the point. You can use iMovie and do the same thing, but in doing so you've decompressed the AAC audio, and turned it into a 16 bit AIFF (or CD track, which is more or less the same thing). Since often the tracks in the ITMS come from 24 bit sources, you'll find that if you try to recompress the tracks you'll get slightly less than before - like copying an analog tape (though not quite that bad). The real goal is to extract the unencrypted AAC stream - to turn M4P files into M4A files *without* decompressing and recompressing them.

Not a very elegant way to do it, but I used JetAudio (basic version is free) to record an m4p file as I played it through Itunes default player on my computer. It basically can record anything playing inline (stereo mix) on your computer. Their really should be a better way, I hate the extra steps just to be able to play these files on my portable ! The basic version will make a APE, FLAC, OGG, Realmedia, WAV, or WMA file. I record to WMA, since my player will play that and mp3 format. The pro version will also record to mp3 or mp3Pro (?) version

Or use Audacity (Freeware) audio editor for Windows, OS X and Linux to export to wav, mp3 or ogg. HD-ogg is a very simple one to use.

Simply burn the itune downloads (M4P) to a CD using the itunes software. Now the file is in a .CDA extention. You can use CD Blaster to convert the .CDA file to an MP3. The quality is great.

Instructions on how to make a .mp3 out of a .m4p in Panther are as follows:

1. Open iMovie, create a new project on your desktop.
2. Find the music file in your iTunes folder, drag, and drop it into the iMovie. Let it import, save the project. Exit iMovie.
3. Open up Sound Studio, explore the Media Folder of your iMovie project, and open the one file in there.
4. File - Save As, rename file to the name of the song, save to whatever location you wish, and under format choose Windows WAVE. Exit Sound Studio.
5. Open up iTunes, make a new playlist, and drag and drop the WAVE file in there. Control-Click and select "Convert Selection to MP3". Let it do what it does.
6. Drag and drop the new MP3 file to your desktop, rename, and VOILA.

You now have a high quality MP3 of the song you wanted.
Send to whomever you wish. :)

sir i want convertor from cda to mp3

I tryed the imovie/soundstudio thing step by step and the file came out to be 53.3 megs!

Of course... Because it's an AIFF. Now you bring that into iTunes and turn it into an AAC or MP3 file.

Well I thought about doing the whole "burning to CD" thing, and I don't really wanna waste CDs. So I was thinkin' about setting up a virtual CD drive that would somehow trick iTunes into burning songs onto that drive instead.

However, all I can manage to find is software to create virtual CD or DVD drives. I don't have Toast or other programs that cost money, unfortunately.

Question: When buying music through iTunes it will save to my music library, but it will not download to my iPod. Anyone know what is wrong?

Thanks

Steve...

Is your iPod running the latest firmware? If not, you'll need to upgrade for mp4 compatibility.

THIS IS BULLSHIT! If they are going to encrype the fucking file if should be a free download! I should have used something else! I download aobut $5 worth of songs, then put them on my Nokia 3300 and then it wouldn't play! I'm gonna try to burn the music as a reqular audio CD to a CD-RW and see if I can rip it to an MP3.

I did the iMovie / Sound Studio thing for about 40 songs that I purchased from iTunes. It took awhile but worked perfectly.

Well, I can't use iMoive/Sound Studio cause I have windows.

My friends whom have fallen to Apple's "interests" lend me your ears!!!!!!!

Okay...so its my 7th cup of coffee...what can I say...

I called Apple 'cause iTunes wasnt going to their store...turns out some 3rd party was preventing it. However, one intersting thing is, normally one would HAVE TO PAY $45 FOR PHONE SUPPORT if you havent bought an iPod.

Stevie, go jump off a cliff.

I was able to get support due to a mistake on their part, the guy "suggested" I burn it to a cd. But he couldnt give the process away.

So my point is (too late i know) that what Hellmonkey is saying is correct. You can plaster your .m4p's to a CD using the "Audio-CD format" and then use Windows Media Player (or some other software) to rip off the songs.

Also it might be possible to set up the virtual, or actually make one in windows. I think there was some way in 98 and 98 SE, but I'm running blind on the other Op systems. And for Mac's as well... you poor poor people...

Which brings me to my next point...if Microsoft made Windows Media Player able to copy songs onto the computer...then isnt Microsoft in turn liable for all the KaZaA, Grokster, Morphius, AND iMesh downloads, AND shouldn't Microsoft be whom the RIAA should really be up against instead of preying on helpless individuals???

(The RIAA should follow ol'Stevies suggestion as well. In my opinion.)

Thats my soapbox opinion. Take it or leave it.

Here's an idea.....how about burning your songs to a CD/RW?!?!?! Then your could rip them with whatever software you feel like and then erase the disc. You could use the disc over again.

Yes, we all know you can burn M4P files to CD and re-rip them. You can even save the CDR and the time and instead use iMovie to rip them out to AIFF.

Those solutions are not interesting.

Why? Because in both cases you have to RE-encode the music unless you are happy with uncompressed audio (that was once lossy-compressed).

Much more interesting, and alas what seems to be lacking from the responses being posted, is a way to extract the *compressed* AAC audio from the m4p file *without* decompressing it. Doing that would mean being able to change an m4p file *directly* into an m4a file without any loss of quality.

I've tried to use Audacity however when I try to open the .m4p files I get an error message that it does not recognize the file type. I went through the steps anyway but all I got in the end was a static filled file. Am I missing something?

OK I have downloaded a couple of songs from itunes. I copied them out using itunes and burnt them to a CD as an audio file. They become cda files. In Windows Media Player I copied them to my Media Libray, after I got them there I had to rename them because they came in as unknown. From there I used Roxio 5.5 and converted them to mp3. Now I don't have the best ear in town but they sound fine to me.

I was just wondering, how do you turn a m4p into a mp3? I don't have a mac and I was only downloading with itunes because I got songs for free with my Pepsi today. Sorry if this question is asked more then once....

Wow, Nick, watching you painstakingly re-explain the point of your initial post over and over is the best argument I have seen for turning off comments.

Thank you, however, for answering my question.

And good luck.

to solve everyones problem that has a pc. Burn the songs to a disk then import them back on ur comp and they will be mp3's

Close... it appears that you don't even need any other software other than iTunes to do the conversion- just a stack of recordable CD's. Pick which songs you want to convert, then create a new playlist (File/New Playlist) and save them to that playlist. Next, choose File/Burn Playlist to Disk. You burn the .m4p files into .cda files. If you leave the disk in the drive, it will show up in the "Source" column in iTunes. Click on the CD so that the files on the CD show up in the playlist. Right click on each file and choose Convert to .mp3. It will do the conversion right there, even while it's playing. To find the location of the newly created .mp3, simply go to your library and find the file location from there. It should place each .mp3 in the same file as the original .m4p file, unless you set it up differently. Fine, so the quality isn't perfect because you have to decompress it. Ours is not a perfect world. I doubt you will even notice the difference.

I don't know how to make it any clearer than that, other than coming over and doing it for you...

ARGH!!!!!

"Look, it looks like there are footprints in the snow ahead!"

Max is right. I'm tired of trying to steer this topic back in the right direction. If you can't figure out how to burn your m4p files to audio CDs, go get your tech support at Apple.

Sheesh!