What Is DRM Protected Music? Answer This Question Here!

“What is DRM protected music?”

“Is it possible to get rid of the DRM protection you’ll see on some music files? How can it be done?”

“Are there are trusted tools or apps I can use to remove the DRM encryption of the music files I have right now and then stream them freely?”

Are you also curious about the same query – “what is DRM protected music”? Have you already found good guides and references that explain all the details about DRM protection? Do you wish to learn more about this topic?

In this post, we will be answering this “what is DRM protected music?” question. Usually, this is being asked by Spotify and Apple Music users who wish to save some of their favorite tracks on their devices and stream them anytime and anywhere. But this post will be focusing specifically on the Apple Music files.

If you may have noticed, there is always an error when you are trying to move or download some of those good Apple Music songs. Do you know what’s the reason behind this? Well, the difficulty is being experienced because you might be trying to move a protected music file!

In using Apple Music, upon purchasing the tracks, you can listen to them on any Apple device. But those tracks purchased back in 2009 or earlier aren’t the same because those are DRM encrypted. Added to this, if you wish to have them on your other devices like Android gadgets, you might face issues when it comes to compatibility.

So, how can this be fixed? We’ll discuss this as well as you go and read the content of this post. Of course, we will be giving the answer to this “what is DRM protected music?” question!

What else are you doing? Jump and read the first part of this post to begin!

Contents Guide Part 1. What Does It Mean When Songs Are DRM Protected?Part 2. How To See Which Songs Are DRM Protected?Part 3. Bonus: How to Remove DRM from Apple Music?Part 4. Summary

Part 1. What Does It Mean When Songs Are DRM Protected?

What is DRM protected music? This will surely be the first question the moment you realized you’ve got music files that are protected by DRM! To help you answer this, we will be giving important information in this part of the article.

DRM, or known by some as the short-term for Digital Right Management, is controlling the access to materials or content (including music files) that are copyrighted via technological ways. This is in fact all about giving the creators the protection they need against the illegal use of others. With this protection, it might seem impossible to access the files on devices that are unauthorized or have them moved or transferred.

DRM actually is a scheme with two parts. As mentioned, it serves as content protection using encryption. The other system is the authentication that is used to make sure that only those who are authorized will be able to access the content bought. Most of the time, the authentication process comes with licenses, passwords, and more.

Once you purchase an item that is DRM protected (including music files you can buy from iTunes Store or Apple Music subscription), you will be given a specific key. There are also cases that multiple keys are being given if using several devices is possible.

There are lots of content wherein DRM protection can be applied. This includes video or music files, e-books, DVDs and CDs, and a lot more. So, to answer the “what is DRM protected music?” question, it’s simply a music file that is encrypted with DRM protection. In the case of Apple Music songs, it’s usually known by many as protected by Apple’s FairPlay protection policy.

Now that you know basically what the answer to the “what is DRM protected music?” question is, we will be tackling how you can check if you have music files that are DRM-encrypted. This is what we will be discussing in the second part. If you are curious to find out how, then move on and read the next section.

Part 2. How To See Which Songs Are DRM Protected?

After answering the “what is DRM protected music?” question, we will now be dealing with the procedure to help you identify which from the songs you have are DRM protected.

You only need to have your iTunes app with you – in the 12.4 version.

Here are the steps.

Step #1. Have your iTunes app on your PC launched.

Step #2. Hover your mouse to the top area of the iTunes page and look for the “View” button. Once seen, tap on it and then choose “Column Browser” afterward followed by clicking the “Show View Options” button.

Step #3. You have to select the “Show Columns” next to see the drop-down menu.

Step #4. The next thing to do is to select “File” and then “Kind”.

Step #5. You will now be seeing a column named “View”. You will notice that every song has something in this mentioned field. If you are seeing these words – “Protected AAC audio file”, this means that the file is DRM protected and thus, cannot be played on just any device that you like (those that are not made by Apple Inc.). Now, if you are seeing “MPEG audio file” or “Purchased AAC Audio File” instead, then this means that the file isn’t copyright-protected. You can freely stream these tracks on any device or move them as you wish as long as the device to use supports the accessing of the file format.

By following the above five-step procedure, you can easily identify which music file is DRM protected and which one is not.

Now, upon learning the answer to this “what is DRM protected music?” question, and being able to identify the procedure to check if a music file is DRM protected or not, surely, the next question you have in mind (in case you have protected files) is how can the DRM protection be removed?

Well, at first, it is true that it’s a bit tricky and hard to think about the solution to this. But we are telling you this early that the DRM removal procedure is so easy as well! How are we able to say that?

Learn more as you delve into the content of the next part of this article.

Part 3. Bonus: How to Remove DRM from Apple Music?

If you have been an Apple Music subscriber and a fanatic for so long, surely, you have been wondering as well about how the DRM removal would be possible.

Luckily, that’s an easy thing to do now. With great apps and tools like this AMusicSoft Apple Music Converter, DRM protection removal has been made easier.

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There are actually lots of software applications out there that can give you the same benefit when it comes to DRM encryption removal but what makes AMusicSoft Apple Music Converter better?

Using AMusicSoft Apple Music Converter allows you to not only remove the DRM protection of the music files you have but also gives you the ability to convert them into more flexible and more used file formats like MP3, WAV, FLAC, and more. With its too fast speed, 16x faster than the others, you can assure that files will readily be available after just a few minutes. It even maintains 100% original quality and preserves ID tags.

What’s even good is that this app is so user-friendly. Even if you are to use this for the first time, you’ll surely easily be able to handle this even without guides! If you are wondering about the installation needs, there is nothing to worry about. With just a few notable things, you can have this app installed on your PC already. To know all the details prior to the installation process, you can visit AMusicSoft’s official website.

Now, we have here an overview of how to use this AMusicSoft Apple Music Converter.

Step #1. Once you completed all the installation needs and you have successfully installed the app on your PC, just launch it to start. On the main page, choose the Apple Music songs (DRM protected ones) that you wish to download and convert.

Step #2. Under the “Output Format” section, choose the desired format after the conversion process. It is also recommended that you put an output folder for easy access after the conversion of files.

Step #3. Tap on the “Convert” button you’ll see on the screen and the app will then process the transformation of the files. While this is being done, the DRM removal will also be accomplished.

Just like that, you can have the DRM-free files saved on your PC! Feel free to enjoy them on any device you own without thinking about compatibility issues and the like!

Part 4. Summary

Now that you arrived at the summary portion, surely, you now know the answer to your problem - what is DRM protected music?” Another benefit of reading this post is that you gained an idea of how you can easily have the DRM protection of the music files you have removed right away! If you have any questions related to the main topic of this post, or about AMusicSoft Apple Music Converter, you can just put them in the section below and we’ll make sure to accommodate and answer them!