Just purchased a squeezebox and am wondering what the best workaround is for playing songs purchased through itunes. I know they are protected and won't simply stream. What is the simplest or best way to get around this?

Just purchased a squeezebox and am wondering what the best workaround is for playing songs purchased through itunes. I know they are protected and won't simply stream. What is the simplest or best way to get around this?
Tough slog. As you know (from the relevant page on the Slimdevices Wiki (http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?BeginnersGuideToiTunes)): "SlimServer does not play music purchased from the iTunes Music Store with DRM." Slimserver does integrate with iTunes in a number of respects, but iTunes has no hooks to let Slimserver use it to decrypt and stream your encrypted AACs.

And remember, play fair. The DMCA prohibits circumvention of technical measures, such as Apple's "FairPlay" system, controlling access to copyrighted works.

As far as I know there is no device (except an ipod of course) that will play protected AAC files purchased from Apple.

A workaround? Rip the songs to an MP3 cd and re-import them into Itunes. Then you'll have them.

You can't rip or otherwise directly convert from AAC to MP3 - though you can make a CD from iTunes (I don't know what that file format is) and then convert the CD to MP3 and re-import to iTunes where you will now have two copies - your original AAC and the newly ripped and converted MP3s. This is why Apple and iTunes is to be avoided IMO.

I have seen programs which supposedly remove DRM protection from recordings. Do they work? Is it illegal for me to do so for my own use even though I have paid for the songs?

Yes it is illegal to do so...but I won't tell :)

I have seen programs which supposedly remove DRM protection from recordings. Do they work? Is it illegal for me to do so for my own use even though I have paid for the songs?

Yes it is illegal to do so...but I won't tell :)


As far as I know there is no crack for Itunes 7 songs... Only older itunes versions... I think you are SoL... I really can't comprehend why people would spend money buying low sound quality songs from Itunes when you can buy a CD for less money, and have better sound quality and no DRM BS to worry about...

Who knows... and I do understand why? Its easy... My GF has spent $1000+ on itunes over the last 2 years...

Sean

I guess I am fortunate that I only have 25 or 30 songs I have purchased on itunes. Are the other music stores out there selling songs without DRM protection? Rhapsody for instance? Then of course I am stuck not being able to play them on my ipod? Very complicated for an old timer like myself.

Just stick with CDs and rip them into whatever format at whatever quality you want. If you change your mind later, you can rip them again into a different format. Hard drive crashes and you have no backup? No worries, rip the CDs again.

I do rip CD's and that is fine but I have young kids learning guitar and drums (I know I have bigger problems than digitizing music) and they like having individual songs. Buying a CD for one song doesn't really work for me. That is one of the reasons I am getting the squeezebox. Being able to stream music separate from my computer will be great for the whole family.

As far as I know there is no device (except an ipod of course) that will play protected AAC files purchased from Apple.
Logitech Wireless DJ will play.

I do rip CD's and that is fine but I have young kids learning guitar and drums (I know I have bigger problems than digitizing music) and they like having individual songs. Buying a CD for one song doesn't really work for me. That is one of the reasons I am getting the squeezebox. Being able to stream music separate from my computer will be great for the whole family.

You might try Rhapsody or Yahoo music. For ~10$ a month you get unlimited access to several million songs...

on DRM there is apple DRM and the MS and Everyone else DRM... At least with the non apple solution you have a much wider variety of source of music, portable players, home media centers, and PC software to play them. With apple your stuck with Itunes and Ipod...

The device mentioned above will play itunes stuff with reduction in quality due to the way it works....

Sean