If you have moved from Apple iPod to Microsoft Zune, you probably have some songs that you purchased from the iTunes Music Store that you would like to move to the new device. You will run into a hurdle if you try to transfer the files directly as Apple's copy protection prevents the song from playing on another device. There is a workaround to this however...

1. Create a new playlist in iTunes.
2. Add the protected songs to your playlist until you have 72 minutes of music.
3. Click the "Burn Disc" button.
4. Click the radio button next to "Audio CD" and tick "Include CD Text" option.
5. Upon completion of burning the disc, rip the songs to MP3 using Windows Media Player.
6. Open the Zune software and sync the newly created MP3's to your Zune device.

Alternatively, you can use TuneClone Audio Converter. It automatically generates a virtual CD-ROM drive during the installation. The virtual CD drive tricks your PC into believing that you are burning a CD. Therefore, the DRM protection is removed without wasting a CD and the speed is very fast. Below are the steps:

1. Create a new playlist in iTunes.
2. Add the protected songs to your playlist. Since iTunes burns the protected music with TuneClone virtual CD drive, there is no limit as to music length so long as you have enough hard drive space.
3. Launch TuneClone. Click the "Settings" tab. In the pop-up window, you can specify output folder, output file name format, output format (Here we can choose MP3 or WMA since Zune accepts MP3 and WMA music), etc. for the output files. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed in the bottom left corner of the interface.

4. In iTunes, click the "Burn Disc" button.
5. In the pop-up window of "Burn Settings", select "TuneClon Virtual_CD-RW" from the "CD Burner" drop-down list, click the radio button next to "Audio CD" and tick "Include CD Text" option. Click "Burn" to start burning.

6. Upon the completion of burning the disc and encoding the music, you can open the TuneClone manager screen to show all the converted music files. To locate the output folder, simply click the "Folder" tab on the interface.
7. Open the Zune software and sync the music in the output folder to your Zune device.
Done.

Are you annoyed by iTunes DRM? Do you want to remove it because you want to play the iTunes music on non-Apple MP3 players like PSP, Zune, Creative Zen, BlackBerry, PS3, iriver, Walkman, mobile phone MP3 player, etc., use it as background music in a home video, or anything else that DRM limits it to do? Many people know you can remove the DRM from 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.

And the method I am going to introduce does the same exact thing but you will not need a CD-RW disc, a CD ROM drive, or even need to burn anything! It's that simple. Let's show you how to perform this.

We are going to be using a program called TuneClone. TuneClone is basically a program that acts as a virtual CD drive that allows you "burn" MP3 from iTunes and "rip" it. TuneClone "lies" to your computer saying that you have a CD-RW drive that it will burn to (like Alchohol 120%). You can use this to move your library of M4P DRM protected music to the MP3 format that you can use on any player out there worth its salt. This is a useful tool for anyone looking to break their relationship with the iPod. The best part is that it maintains all of the music file's metadata. Below is the step by step tutorial that shows how it works:

1. Download TuneClone from http://www.tuneclone.com and install it.

TuneClone is fully compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. A virtual CD Burner will be installed. This virtual CD-RW will be used to convert music files.

2. Make settings at TuneClone



Click the Settings button at TuneClone. In the pop-up window, you can specify the output folder, output filenames, output format, etc. for the output files.

Note: Apart from MP3, TuneClone also allows you to convert iTunes M4P to WAV and unprotected WMA.

Tip: You can get the output protection removed music folder by clicking the Folder button after the whole process.

3. Make settings at iTunes(iTunes 8 )

Create a playlist, and then add the files you want to convert into the playlist.



After you have created the playlist ready to be burnt, click the Burn Disc in the bottom right of iTunes.

In the pop up window of Burn Settings, make the settings as highlighted below:



4. Start to burn

Click the Burn button to start burning.

After the burning gets started, TuneClone will automatically convert the music file to MP3, WMA or WAV. You can open the manager screen to show all the converted music files.



The most important step is to choose the CD burner. Then the software can convert the music files automatically. It is exceedingly easy when you want to batch convert lots of files.

The newest version of TuneClone - TuneClone V1.30 - was released on December 15,2008!

TuneClone Audio Converter is a powerful yet easy to use DRM remover and music converter program for removing DRM from iTunes music, Windows Media Player music, RealPlayer music, WinAMP music, Napster music, Rhapsody music, etc., with the music metadata well preserved.



Unlike other media converters, TuneClone Audio Converter applies the virtual CD burning technology to remove the DRM. It generates 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.

TuneClone Audio Converter can be used to convert iTunes protected AAC (M4P), M4B, M4A, protected WMA to MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA. It removes the DRM from protected iTunes M4P or protected WMA so as to help you play the DRM-laden music on media players or MP3 players like Microsoft Zune, Sony PSP, BlackBerry, Creative Zune, iriver, SanDisk Sansa, Sony Walkman, Cell Phone(Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia N-series, Samsung Anycall, LG, etc.) Pocket PC, PDA and so on.

Key features of TuneClone V1.30: (from http://www.tuneclone.com)

1. Easy to install and easy to use via a simple user interface.

2. Remove DRM from purchased or protected music from iTunes, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, WinAMP, Napster, Rhapster, etc, using automatically generated virtual CD drive.

3. Convert DRM protected music to plain MP3 format for playback on all kinds of MP3 players or media players like Zune, PSP, BlackBerry, Creative Zen, iriver, Walkman, etc.

4. Remove DRM from purchased music files by applying the virtual CD burning technology, which adopts the maximum writing speed so that your music files can be converted at a very high speed.

5. Convert iTunes protected AAC (M4P), M4B and M4A to MP3, WAV and WMA.

6. Convert protected WMA (Windows Media Audio) to MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA.

7. Well Preserve ID3 tags for artist, album, title names, artworks, etc.

8. The converted songs will have no DRM restriction any more.

Availability, price and support

More information about TuneClone V1.30 is available at http://www.tuneclone.com/index.php. You can free download TuneClone V1.30 from http://www.tuneclone.com/tuneclone_setup.exe for a try.

The full version of TuneClone V1.30 costs USD34.95.

If you have questions about or show interest in TuneClone V1.30, please feel free to contact TuneClone support team via support@tuneclone.com.

"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.

There are many ways to remove DRM protection from iTunes music. On Windows OS, you can remove the DRM from iTunes music using the burn-and-rip method or you can turn to programs like TuneClone and DoubleTwist. On Mac OS X, iMovie is the perfect solution to removing DRM from iTunes music. Besides, freewares like FairGame is also a pretty good choice. So this article is dedicated to introducing several methods of removing the nasty DRM from iTunes music on Windows and Mac OS X. It is divided into the following four parts:

Part 1. Remove DRM from iTunes music on Windows with burn-and-rip method


A. 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.

TuneClone V1.20 was released on September 3, 2008!




TuneClone V1.20 is a powerful DRM cracker and music converter for unlocking iTunes DRMed M4P music and protected WMA music and converting M4P, M4A, M4B, WMA to MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA.