Basically, when you buy music from iTunes, it comes with a copyright protection called DRM. These DRM-protected songs are locked so that they only work with Apple MP3 players. That means that if you bought a Microsoft Zune, you cannot use iTunes music.

So, what is the solution? You have to burn a CD. When you do this, the DRM is removed (because the music is converted to a non-DRM-compatible media). After you burn the CD, you can rip it to your PC as an MP3 file which no longer has DRM.

Alternatively, you can use TuneClone (http://www.tuneclone.com/index.php).



TuneClone makes a virtual CD-ROM drive, tricking your PC into believing that you are burning a CD. Therefore, the DRM is removed without wasting a CD.

"My laptop HDD recently failed, so I replaced it with an iMac. Fortunately, my iTunes library was on an external HDD, so I have copied it across to the iMac. However, the songs that I have purchased from iTunes do not seem to be available. They have copied across, but are 'greyed out'. I have authorised my new computer to play purchases. Is there anything else I am forgetting?"

It is relatively painless to switch over from Windows to Mac as Mac has support for a lot of commonly used files like Microsoft Word documents, Powerpoint slideshows and Adobe PDF files. So, compatibility is hardly an issue. What you do have to take note of however while switching over to Mac are your iTunes library and WMAs. Note: This tutorial was written under the assumption that you are running the latest version of iTunes ( iTunes 8 ) on both your Windows and Mac.

1. Add WMAs to iTunes on Windows

"Can I play iTunes (that I have stored on my computer) on my PS3? I know I can't just hook up my iPod to it or stream from my PC. I read something about transferring music to USB and then put that flash drive in the PS3, will this work? I want to play my iTunes on my home theater but I have no other way than to play it through my PS3. I have a yamaha 5990 receiver and it is not iPod compatible. Any options here? Thanks in advance."

As the music in iTunes is encrypted with DRM, you cannot directly transfer it to your PS3. The easiest way is to burn the music to an audio CD and then rip it back to Windows Media Player or a similar program as an MP3.

Or you can get some software to help you. TuneClone is a pretty good program to get the iTunes protected AAC (M4P) music burned to MP3.

It is very easy to create free ringtones for your iPhone 3G using only iTunes and songs you already have on your computer. This tutorial shows how to perform step by step. It only works with songs that are DRM free. To create ringtones using DRM protected songs, you need first strip the DRM off and then follow the guide. This method has been tested and works with iTunes 7.7.1 and iPhone 2.0.1 firmware. Actually, my friend told me he had tested it with iTunes 8 and it worked smoothly as well, though there were several differences in making settings due to the update of iTunes. And here is the tutorial: http://www.tuneclone.com/how-to-free-custom-ringtones-for-iphone-3g.php

Are you annoyed by iTunes DRM? Do you want to strip it off because you want to play the iTunes music on other mobile devices other than iPod and iPhone, use it as background music in a home video, or anything else that DRM limits it to do? Many people know you can strip off the DRM off iTunes music by simply burning the song to a CD, and ripping it back over, losing very little quality(if settings are correct): 1. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive. You'd better use CD-RW disc as it can be used for more than once.
2. Burn your playlist to make an audio CD. You cannot select the MP3 CD option since it requires the encrypted iTunes music files be converted to unprotected MP3 files.
3. After the audio CD is successfully burned, insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive again. Then you can use iTunes to import the music tracks on the burned disc to MP3 files.