I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

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I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

March 25, 2007, 06:55:40 PM

I swear... stuff like this makes me hate music. I bought some music from Urge via Media Player today while I was at work. I bring the files home and voila! Files no workie. Ugh!!! I sign in thinking maybe that would work and no. Between iTunes, RealPlayer and Urge (oh yeah, forgot about Yahoo!) I have had it with DRM!!! WTF is the point of me buying music if I can't play it? Not everybody has or wants an iPod... or a Zune for that matter.

I have all this music, and a different player on each computer I use. Not by design. iTunes on the laptop... mainly because she has an iPod. RealPlayer (which was my main media player for quite awhile) on the personal PC, and Urge at work... because the company is all gitty about Microsoft products. Woo-hoo.

I can understand DRM on subscriptions. But if I purchase the music, it should be mine. Not half mine and half theirs.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother. I should just go back to the torrents. Which the only thing I disliked about that was if it wasn't popular... you are going to wait. For. Ever.

All I wanted to do was make a ringtone.

Anybody know of any WMA Rights removers that work? I'm tired of downloading junk that says it will work and nothing happens. I don't mind paying for it either. One that works for Real Player and iTunes tracks would be a plus as well, but not necessary at the moment.

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #1 – March 25, 2007, 08:55:21 PM

Dont know if you want to go to all the trouble but what I have done, with Itunes atleast, is burn it to a cd and then rip it off the cd to the HD.

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #2 – March 25, 2007, 08:59:23 PM

just go back to torrents lol they work the best

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #3 – March 25, 2007, 10:17:37 PM

There's no DRM on store bought CD's...

Seriously - DRM makes it so I don't want anything to do with some technology. F'rinstance, Blue Ray and HD DVD - you actually have to have a fully DRM-compliant chain of devices before you can even play the ed things. Not just your player, but your TV and even the cable between the player and TV. If you want to play one in your computer you need the drive, video card, cable and monitor all to be DRM compliant. No thanks, I'll stick to my DVD's.

Oddly, Steve Jobs, who has crippled iTunes with retarded DRM measures (including the fact that you need an iPod to play music you purchased from iTunes) is actually lobbying the music industry for the right to strip online music of DRM restrictions. Probably has something to do with his company up on charges of monopolism in the EU .He's claiming the recording industry forces him to apply DRM schemes on music downloaded from iTunes - DRM schemes that just happen to make it so that you have to buy an iPod. And yes, Eric, I'm aware that Apple's DRM scheme is one of the more liberal ones, allowing you to have a song on several devices, but those devices must be iPod compatible, and I've yet to see anything iTunes compatible that doesn't say "Apple" on it (in other words, your playback device has to be an iPod, since Apple hasn't licensed its format to anyone). Apple doesn't make car stereos. I don't want a wire coming out of my dash connected to an iPod, especially when I can load an MP3 CD into a stereo (and only have to buy one device - a stereo, instead of a stereo plus an iPod). In fact my next car stereo won't even require the CD - it'll have USB capability

I don't buy online music for just that reason. It's not that I don't want to pay for it, it's that I refuse to submit to DRM stupidity that only punishes honest people. Hackers laugh at DRM. DRM does absolutely nothing to prevent music sharing. If I want the whole album I buy the CD. I then rip it to the computer and transfer it to my MP3 player. I also put it on an MP3 compilation CD for the car, and sometimes another MP3 CD for the garage. As for single songs - When I hear a song on the radio I like I download it using torrents or Limewire (or at least I used to, before moving to an area without high speed internet). I know it's stealing, but the record industry drove me to it and I have no apologies. If I could legally pay a buck for a song and listen to it on my computer, in both of my cars, in the CD player in the garage, and in my portable MP3 player I'd gladly do it. ed if I'm gonna "buy" a song and be restricted as to where I can listen to it, though...

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #4 – March 25, 2007, 11:18:46 PM

For iTunes try JHymn. As far as WMA goes, you could convert them to MP3 as soon as you download them, although they would lose a bit of quality.

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #5 – March 25, 2007, 11:47:07 PM

One word

LIMEWIRE :D

I got over 50gigs of music that way.

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #6 – March 26, 2007, 12:27:18 AM

If it wasn't for the "Apple way" of doing things with music, there wouldn't be any legitimate online music sales whatsoever. Jobs was the first person to get all the music label heads together and come up with some kind of viable music distribution solution. Behind everyone's backs. For several years, in fact. How exactly did that not leak to the press?! You have to remember that Steve Jobs is a huge music fan. His favorite band in the world is The Beatles, who were on the Apple Corps label. Jobs was so enthralled with The Beatles that he named his company Apple, a tribute to Apple Corps. This has gotten him into hot water on several (expensive) occasions. But first and foremost he is a music fan just like everyone else, and that is why he was so passionate about getting this deal made.

Anyway, the deal-breaker was that the music would be protected by a proprietary DRM. This assuaged all parties. Apple had the momentum with iPod sales when the store launched in 2003. MP3.com and Napster were dead in the water. M$ had absolutely nothing. It just so happened that Apple had all the advantages at that time, so they got to call the shots. And all five labels at the time said, "OK". Is it all Apple's fault? Or the record labels? They certainly both have to share the initial responsibility. (The problem is that most music lovers see music as theirs. Technically it's not...it's the artist's and the record company's. You just have a copy of it).

However, since the iTunes Store began, and now that we're 4 years hence, what is troubling is that Apple is not licensing their DRM (aka FairPlay). If they'd have done that even as late as last year, people would probably be better off. But even now it's a totally closed system with iTunes having well over 80% of market share, with a control-freak as the company head who calls all the shots in that market segment.

Kind of like, Windows.

The only difference is that Apple's stuff actually works together.

That being said, almost all the music I've bought in the last 3 years has been through the iTunes store. It's just a wonderful thing. I've always hated going to music stores. I've always hated trying to find some obscure CD in Best Buy, only to be told that "it's not in our system". F that. Waste of my time. Probably 98% of anything that I'd ever want to listen to is already on iTunes. $1 per song? That's extremely fair, for something that is yours forever, that you never have to rent, that you never get screwed with if music media ever changes again. I started off with LP's, then 8-tracks, then cassettes, then CD's. You know what they all do now? Collect dust in my basp00get. All that money just wasting away. So now I digitize that music via the computer, make MP3 files out of them, and they're on my iPod. At the very least I can continue to listen to the music in a usable format.

(BTW...the only physical CDs that I buy now are from Tool. Gotta love that packaging!)

Honestly...I can't imagine a simpler and more efficient lifestyle. I have ALL of the music I want with me wherever I go. I have iPod hookups in all the vehicles...have since 2003. It's not that hard to do: RCA stereo male-to-1/8" stereo mini-jack cable. It's $7 at Radio Shack. And that will work with any MP3 player, not just the iPod. Wires can be hidden easily in these cars. Unless you don't have an AUX set of jacks in your radio, there is no barrier. And even then there are so many solutions out there in iPodland.

As mentioned...in iTunes, burn to CD, then re-rip as an MP3. Then put the file wherever you want, or onto whatever device you want. Look at the burned CD as a hardcopy backup (I also back up the M4P protected files, just in case). In fact, that's about the only time I ever burn a CD now. They're almost wasteful (and so1989).

The point: you can certainly purchase music from iTunes, then reformat it for YOUR purposes. It's legitimate, it ensures royalties to the artists, and you won't have to worry about being bullied by the RIAA. It is the most fair system out there, like it or not. Could it be better? Of course. But the way sales are at iTunes I don't expect a change soon. Unless the music labels change their minds. And I think everyone on this board will be pushing up daisies before that ever happens.

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #7 – March 26, 2007, 02:02:11 AM

A buddy I know uses a program called TuneBite. We said it works wonders. It can dub the mp3 into just about any file type. It can do single tracks and bacthes of the stuff. It can even bud in high speed. It does run a test on your system to set the highest budding speed. I tried it on a few tunes I had and it work great.

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #8 – March 26, 2007, 07:21:46 AM

Quote from: 88sportcoupe;136335

Dont know if you want to go to all the trouble but what I have done, with Itunes atleast, is burn it to a cd and then rip it off the cd to the HD.

Yeah I know that works, I actually had a virtual drive setup to eliminate wasting CDs. But I had to reformat my PC and I lost the software... If I had a burner at work that's what I would have done.

At this point I would rather go back to buying CD's. I like/miss the album art. Buying a CD feels completely different than buying/downloading a track/album. It's almost emotionless... Plus I can make my own copies in whatever format I choose and pick whatever portable music player I wish when I'm on the go. I just wish most music stores weren't so inside malls. But I need to get out more anyways...

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #9 – March 26, 2007, 12:38:50 PM

I usually just use winamp i dont believe that it trys to acquire licenses like Windows Media Player but i could be wrong i only download MP3's and steer clear of WMA's.

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #10 – March 26, 2007, 07:27:51 PM

Media player only puts that protection on it if that is what you put on it or you downloaded it that way. Just use that Tunebite. Works great and yes it will bypass that protection.

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #11 – April 02, 2007, 11:36:05 AM

Well, as of this morning, for all EMI songs Apple is now offering a DRM-free version:

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/04/02itunes.html

Quote

“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”

On one hand, it is DRM-free at only a modest $.30 cost per song, over and above the normal $.99 charge, and it's ripped at an extremely high-quality 256kbps AAC lossless encoding that is virtually identical to a CD.

On the other hand, if the music you want to purchase is not on EMI's label, then you're out of luck for now. Plus you'll still need iTunes to play an AAC file (although you can re-encode it to a 256kbps MP3 file and move it to whichever program you like, and not have to burn to a CD and re-rip as with current M4P's).

But it is a step in the right direction. And now that the door is opened you can bet that Steve Jobs is working with the other labels to do the same thing. It's good news for the consumers, first and foremost. And I'm sure the labels will be happy to make more money (they always are). My guess is that Apple will be paying the extra $.30 to the labels (currently Apple makes only about $.05 per song; technically iTunes breaks even on music. Apple only makes money on the videos and the sales of iPods). So even if you don't like Apple, at least you wouldn't be lining their pockets that much. You'd still be making the record companies richer, just like now.

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #12 – April 02, 2007, 12:41:45 PM

That is sweet! Another cool feature is this.

Quote

iTunes will also offer customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free format for 30 cents a song. All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price.

I'm glad someone finally took the first step.

I saw this headline on Google News and I couldn't help but laugh.

Quote

DRM - The Technology No One Wants!

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #13 – April 02, 2007, 01:04:12 PM

Quote from: EricCoolCats;137782

On one hand, it is DRM-free at only a modest $.30 cost per song, over and above the normal $.99 charge, and it's ripped at an extremely high-quality 256kbps AAC lossless encoding that is virtually identical to a CD.

On the other hand, if the music you want to purchase is not on EMI's label, then you're out of luck for now. Plus you'll still need iTunes to play an AAC file (although you can re-encode it to a 256kbps MP3 file and move it to whichever program you like, and not have to burn to a CD and re-rip as with current M4P's).

I'm not normally a fan of Apple...[insert irrational rant], but I love me some non-DRM music files.

I need a WMA Protection Remover... DRM rant

Reply #14 – April 02, 2007, 09:29:00 PM

Quote from: Thunder Chicken;136350

Seriously - DRM makes it so I don't want anything to do with some technology.

If I could legally pay a buck for a song and listen to it on my computer, in both of my cars, in the CD player in the garage, and in my portable MP3 player I'd gladly do it. ed if I'm gonna "buy" a song and be restricted as to where I can listen to it, though...

Amen.

I've sent some raging emails to anyone and everyone involed in this outrageous scam. :flame:

I bought a few "one-up" songs from Puretracks (like the 192kbps quality) and then proceded to sell my laptop (got a new one). I emailed Puretracks and asked how I could get my music to play on my new machine. They told me to back up the licenses, though that was not possible with WiMP 11. I was like "WTF do you MORONS thinks Vista ships with?". I told them to get me my ed music back or else I would make sure nobody in my extended family ever bought music under the pretense of this outrageous scam. Then (as I hear they do to a lot of people) I lost my ability to contact them from my computer.

You think that's the end of the story?

No! The kicker was when I was playing my music one day and one of the song's that was dead actually played! Apparently the song called up Puretracks and got a new license. Talk about Big Brother is watching you. They have literally FORCED me NOT to pay for one-up songs as I cannot be a part of a 1984 big-brother scheme (oh, and not be able to move the music or play it on my UMS MP3 player. I HATE the RIAA. No, I despise the RIAA.

I did hear a person offer up a great solution where artists would be paid for each download in an open type environment. There are so many ways artists (especially one-hit wonders) could be paid for their music but DRM is NOT even close to the right method.

Did I say how much I hate the RIAA?