Removing DRM

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a technology used to take away the rights of consumers. It was made to prevent people from illegally trading media that was purchased legally. However, it makes copying the media for personal use, like onto a portable music player or different computer, difficult and annoying.

iTunes Music Store
Music downloaded from the iTMS is in the m4p format, which is an encrypted m4a. To remove the encryption, use jhymm under the computer (and operating system) that the tunes were purchased from. The result will be unencrypted m4a audio file that can be played with most media players with no loss of quality. An easier but less convenient way to remove the encryption is to burn the songs on a CD with iTunes and rip them with a CD ripper. Also, VLC Media Player will play the tunes automatically as long as it is on the host machine and operating system.