myTunes: the simplified iTunes DRM stripper for Windows

Earlier this week we told you about the first tool we've yet heard of that strips the FairPlay DRM from the iTunes Music Store v6 tracks you bought, called QTFairUse. Unfortunately, because this tool was still very raw and in Python, so it didn't seem entirely there yet for the rest of us; well, today we're one step closer with myTunes, a small (50KB), simple, graphical Windows app designed to strip the DRM off your iTunes tracks lickety split. Based on the QTFairUse Python code (and not that of the original myTunes from way back in the day), this app unfortunately only strips DRM in real time, meaning that while it automates the process as you churn through your playlist, it also requires you to play through your library song by song (compared to FairUse4WM, which strips PlaysForSure DRM en masse). Also, after the FairPlay has been stripped, you still have to use another tool to reconstruct your track from your raw AAC file (which also means you have no metadata). In other words, even though this tool simplifies a lot of the process, it's still also a huge pain to use, so you'd better be prepared to bust out some shell scripting until the next version of myTunes is released (when they intend to automatically add the headers and metadata, making it a one step process). But it did most definitely work, click on to get an idea of what you're in for with this early version of myTunes.

[Thanks, Pete]

So the first thing we did was, of course, update to the very latest version of iTunes for Windows (6.0.5.20) and buy a song from the iTunes Music Store.

We love Ultravox, so we picked an appropriate song...

As you can see, we're prepared for major cash outlays for our editorial.

Once you have your track ready to play, fire up myTunes, set your decoding path, and enable myTunes.

Then, just hit play on your DRMed track, and it will begin the DRM stripping process.

Like we said, it goes in real time, so be patient. You'll probably want to leave this thing running overnight (hey, that's 8 hours of un-DRMed music a day, not too bad).

Once it's done decoding, you have to use another tool called faad.exe to construct a playable AAC ADTS file. Kinda sucks, but it only took 2.8 seconds for Hymn to get built back up. Then we moved all our files (the FairPlay DRMed file, the raw AAC file, and the reconstructed AAC file) to our other machine for testing.

As you'd expect, this is what happened with the AAC file tried to play in VLC. No go -- that's copy protection for ya!

Neither would the raw AAC file play, but that wasn't a surprise either. The resulting file from faad worked just fine, though.

Unfortunately it had no metadata (as expected).

However, as you can see the bitrate was kept intact, and the file size was almost identical to its original. We can't yet confirm that this was a lossless DRM stripping method, but we'd wager it is (or at least very close to it). For what it's worth, we heard absolutely no discernable loss in sound quality. Happy fair use everybody!

[windbell @ Dec 14th 2008 10:49PM]

I just like to use Daniusoft Media Converter Pro, it's easy to use and works great:)
http://www.wmatomp3-converter.com/digital-media-converter-pro.html#123

[maccolar @ Jun 29th 2009 11:47AM]

I'd like to recommend this DRM converter to remove iTunes DRM protection.
http://www.youtubetoipod.biz/drm-remover.html

[Peter S. @ Sep 1st 2006 1:23PM]

What ever happened to JHymm?

[hardcore ben @ Sep 1st 2006 1:26PM]

Well, that's nifty.

Thanks engadget!

[memodude @ Sep 1st 2006 1:29PM]

faad with the -a switch is generating an ADTS header, not an MP4 header. You need to download mp4creator and run it on each file (mp4creator60 -optimize -create=sourcefile newfile) to generate valid .m4a files.

[memodude @ Sep 1st 2006 1:30PM]

The link in my previous comment got stripped out because I put it in angle brackets. The link is http://www.rarewares.org/files/mp4/mp4creator60.EP.zip.

[slyecho @ Sep 1st 2006 2:04PM]

>graphical Windows app

Didn't you mean .NET app?

[Paul @ Sep 1st 2006 1:33PM]

Jhymm is still around, but it won't work with songs that you bought using iTunes 6.0+

Which sucks.

[Awesom-o @ Sep 1st 2006 1:50PM]

There's another program called myTunes Redux.

Not the same thing, but I wonder if it's the same creator as this?

myTunes Redux is awesome, and lets you wirelessly download files from other people's shared libraries without their knowledge. It works great. So I've heard.

[pic @ Sep 1st 2006 1:52PM]

it only took 2.8 seconds for Hymn to get built back up.
it's very good time.

[bob @ Sep 1st 2006 1:56PM]

I don't get it... Why dont you just burn a cd with the protected tracks, then import them back in to itunes as MP3s?

[Jeff @ Sep 1st 2006 2:10PM]

Or...

You can wait a day or two for all of these bugs to get ironed out and someone will write a slick "all-in-one" solution to this in order to get geek cred.

What's the rush? Just don't upgrade iTunes and you can decide to do this whenever you want... perhaps in weeks when some great app is made instead of all this retardedness.

[Mr. Krizz @ Sep 1st 2006 1:58PM]

This sounds a ton like "tunebite", which I use with my Rhapsody files....anyone use that?

[tiuk @ Sep 1st 2006 2:00PM]

bob - IMO, that would take far longer than just letting your library play through. Even if it were quicker, there's a lot of manual work involved, as opposed to just letting it run on its own.

[kevin @ Sep 1st 2006 2:00PM]

myTunes (pre Redux) was the name of a windows program that let you download music from shared itunes libraries about two years ago. This was with iTunes 4, I think, before they made it so that only 5 unique users could connect to your library per day. good shit for college dorm residents where everyone is on the same network.

bob's solution is obviously more time efficient, if this program indeed runs in real time.

[SwiftBlue @ Sep 1st 2006 2:01PM]

Awesome. Hey....wait. Realtime? Why don't you just use Audiograbber with it's auto split, and mp3 encoding? It's loseless if you set it up right. Jeesh. And, if you really need AAC or MP4, you could probably find some kind of plugin or converter. Batch converters. AKA, saving you lots of time. And that's if you still want to do it realtime.

[Vinni @ Sep 1st 2006 2:03PM]

Quick Question:

What's so wrong with getting your own music from different sources with a better variable bit rate? Or is this just a 'In your face, Apple Corp.!' kind of thing?

[ChillyWilly @ Sep 1st 2006 2:24PM]

I tried this myTunes and the previous Python solution and it works, but it is a lot of work if you are looking to do more than just a few tracks.

I've kept one of my iTunes at 5.x and still use Jhymn for all of my music purchases on iTunes and wish for something that will do the same for iTunes 6.x

This is a step towards the right direction, but I can just see the cat/mouse game being played here at some point.

As for bob's question, the burn CD/re-rip back into MP3/AAC creates a second generation loss, which maybe can't be heard, but for anyone that cares about the overall sound of their music to any degree will not want to venture down this path.

[chowbaby @ Sep 1st 2006 2:40PM]

Actually, if you go over to the hymn forums, you'll see that the original author, Igor, has written a v2.0 that is still command-line based, but will do a batch conversion of all your protected m4p files and auto-transfer all the metadata with no need for faad or mp4creator. It's still being debugged, but it's pretty darned cool. Still real-time, though :-(

[JD @ Sep 1st 2006 4:07PM]

Does this work for videos (TV shows)?

JD

[Thomas @ Sep 1st 2006 3:11PM]

@ChillyWilly
"Anyone that cares about the overall sound of their music to any degree will not... "
use iTunes to download 128kbps drm-encumbered tracks.

[tekdroid @ Sep 1st 2006 3:19PM]

lol, well said Thomas.
I strip drm every time I don't purchase it. Lossless. Tangible back-ups. Thank u, come again.

[ChillyWilly @ Sep 1st 2006 4:07PM]

@Thomas

I agree, which is why 98% of my music ripping is done in a higher bit rate from CD. The 2% of the tracks I purchase from iTunes are those I can't find on CD or single tracks that I don't care to purchase the entire CD for.

For those songs, I hate to degrade the process even more by doing the burn to CD and re-rip method.

[Alex @ Sep 2nd 2006 10:16AM]

The re-rip method is little more user friendly. Plus, you can rip the music back at a higher bit rate, and choose whatever format you want. Still, neat idea Engadget.

[Alex @ Sep 2nd 2006 10:16AM]

The re-rip method is a little more user friendly. Plus, it gives you a physical back up, and you can rip it back in whatever bit rate and format you want. Still, nice idea Engadget.

[matt @ Sep 1st 2006 4:36PM]

does anyone know of a mac app that does this or if this works in crossovermac?

[The IT Monkey @ Sep 1st 2006 5:02PM]

The loss of a generation does not concern me so much as the fact that it has to be burned to CD as .wav to strip out the DRM. This works for music but I have many audio book that I have purchased from audible.com. Just recently I found out that you can only have TWO audible accounts active at any time on iTunes... I have THREE. I want to strip out the DRM so I can get all of the books that I have purchased onto my iPod.
This "real time" solution doesn't work so well for my situation as some of these books are over 20 hours long. I would have to set up a seperate computer for just this project.

[Tom @ Sep 1st 2006 6:22PM]

If you are running Windows, you can use the bundled Sound Recorder app to record directly off the sound card. It's located in Programs/Accessories/Entertainment. Select Audio Properties from the Edit menu. Click Volume in the Sound Recording section. From the Options menu, choose properties. Select the Recording radio button and select Stero Mix. Click OK. In the Recording Control window, set the Stereo Mix volume button to be between the 2nd and 3rd mark (increases volume of recorded material) and be sure that the checkbox is selected. Close the windows.

Since Sound Recorder only records a minute at a time, you will need to provide a template that is longer than the sounds you want to record. You will only need to do this once. You can create one by opening a wav file and copy and paste it over itself to increase the length. To get the highest quality recording, select Properties from the File menu (with the template open). Click Convert Now and choose 44.100 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo 172 kb/sec. Click OK. Close properties window. Save your template.

This will allow you to record anything that is played through your computer's speakers, including system sounds, so be sure to turn those off. it is best to do a test recording to make sure that your recording level is set appropriately. Watch the waves during a recording and make sure that they don't go to the edge of the window. If they do, lower the recording level (audio properties).

[Josh @ Sep 1st 2006 6:55PM]

Just FYI, the next version of QTFairUse6 is already out, and it supports whole library automated decryption and it keeps the meta data :) Check http://hymn-project.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=9565

Josh

[Tanner @ Sep 1st 2006 7:29PM]

Tom - that's almost exactly what I was going to say. If you're going through the trouble of playing your music back in real time, why not just record directly from the sound card?

The best thing is to get your hands on a program like Cool Edit, record directly from the sound card, and then just save as MP3.

[David @ Sep 1st 2006 10:36PM]

wow..this is defintiely interesting...could technically let someone 'leave' the itunes store with their own stuff.

Would be neat if I got soemthing other than an Ipod

[matt @ Sep 1st 2006 8:39PM]

yea for all those mac users audio hijack pro works great because it doesent start recording untill their is sound. Great app!

[wrongwheel @ Sep 1st 2006 10:49PM]

check out tunebite works on most drm I've used it on on Urge Napser iTunes. www.tunebite.com and go faster than real time 2x or 4x depending on the type of drm also works on protected movies. only draw back is its not free

[Ryan @ Sep 2nd 2006 12:41PM]

Tunebite is a lot better than this.

There are some bugs that happen every once in a while, but I would take fixing song titles over waiting for them to re-record in real time.

Tunebite, just turn on hi-speed digital dubbing at 4x and go to sleep. Wake up and have free unprotected music!

I use it for Napster, only legal loophole that I know of.

[sal @ Sep 2nd 2006 1:29AM]

Why do you people pay the maximum price possible for low bitrate DRM protected music?

[Steve @ Sep 2nd 2006 2:19PM]

Why do all you people feel compelled to "beat the system?" iTunes allwos you to burn back-up CD's of your purchased music, and play those files on up to five authorized computers. Anyone who is not looking to steal music should certainly be able to live within those perameters.

[Giorgi @ Sep 3rd 2006 4:12AM]

Why not just download music from warez sites?

[xerxesdaphat @ Sep 2nd 2006 11:09AM]

Alex, Tom et al, are you guys brainless? Quote: `you can rip the music back at a higher bit rate'. WTF?! That's as funny as that bash.org quote where the guy says something like he downloads mp3s at 96kbps and then re-encodes them at 224kbps - saves him the download time! ^_^

You guys crack me up. You've been able to rip DRM off tracks by doing the soundcard/burn to cd thing right since the beginning (it even mentions the burn to cd thing in iTunes help file!), however this is pretty useless because you are /re-encoding a lossy track into another lossy format/. It's like saving a JPEG twice. It won't be any smaller file size, but the quality will be far worse. This is the same thing -- you will double the amount of lossy compression artifacts when you re-encode it. Hymn and this new solution are /lossless/ -- i.e., you aren't re-encoding them, you are just getting the original file (with the original quality), sans DRM. I know that lossy compression is hardly audiophile territory anyway, but why the hell would you want to make the audio quality any worse than it is anyway?

-Tommi

[Olly @ Sep 2nd 2006 6:04PM]

Why do they feel compelled to "beat the system". Most obvious example I can think of is that they've got a player that isn't an ipod - ITMS DRM'd files won't work on anything else.

[Alex @ Sep 2nd 2006 11:18PM]

I love the twisted logic of some of these people. They support and fund the use of DRM with their dollars, then spend time to work their way around it. You wouldn't buy a car without keys and then find ways to break into it. Maybe you should try purchasing your music elsewhere.

[Alex @ Sep 2nd 2006 11:19PM]

Re: My comment above--

I should add that I'm not the other Alex--the one who is clueless about the technical details of MP3 bitrates. :)

[Thanatos @ Sep 3rd 2006 1:57AM]

I agree that since iTunes lets you rip a song bought @ iTMS to a CD, effectively removing the DRM, makes MyTunes sort of useless. Now, if it worked for videos bought @ iTMS, that would be different.

[Dave @ Sep 5th 2006 11:00PM]

I review music on itunes and then I buy the CD used on ebay for 1/2 the retail cost and then rip it into itunes and have a cheaper and higher quality library anything purchased from itunes!

Why would you want to buy less quality music for more money and then spend all this time removing DRM and converting etc...?

My time and hard earned dollars are worth more than these tools process!

[anon @ Sep 6th 2006 12:13AM]

what's the matter with you guys?? if you don't like DRM stop buying crap from itunes store!!! wield your true power, the dollar! tell anyone you know to stop PAYING the record industry to sue you.

but the cd from a used cd store at half the price, rip your songs and take the cd back and get some cash for it. it'll be better quality, and certainly cheaper. you might be out some time or convenience (if yer lazy) but if you want to stick it to the man, cut him out of the loop: stop giving him your money!!!

sure it's not as glamourous as this, but it is wayyy more effective. don't forget, they don't control the after market sales of any of their products.

goto www.eff.org and be enlightened.

cheers!

[Dana @ Sep 6th 2006 2:02AM]

On Tuesday, September 6th, 10:30 PM PST, I searched for "myFairTunes6" using Google. Google did not return single link.

I then tried the same search on yahoo.com and got 4 links.

Anybody know why Google's search engine did not return any links to myFairUse6?

Dana

[Steve @ Sep 6th 2006 12:25PM]

I tried this and got .AAC files that were playable in Quicktime and VLC, but I couldn't re-import them into iTunes. Did I miss something? All I wanted to do was convert them to MP3 because my entire library is in MP3. I've already paid for the music, why can't I put it in the format I like? Why can't I put it in a format that's compatible with my other music players (Archos)? Keep fighting the good fight http://www.eff.org!

[Jay Adair @ Jan 8th 2007 3:43PM]

Doesn't work in Vista.

[woodeng @ Jan 14th 2007 10:54PM]

I found a virtual CD burning software named "NoteBurner" at

http://www.noteburner.com. It installs a virtual CD-RW burner on your PC, to

convert the music files, all you have to do is to select the default CD

burner to "NoteBurner CD-RW", then you click the "Burn Disc" button, this

software will do all the rest converting work for you.

As I tested, all the process is working very easy. Compared with other method

like recording, this one is fast and keep high quality in the converting

process. Highly recommended to who want to convert their music purchased

online.