I have several music files purchased from the iTunes Store around 2009 that are still DRM-protected and use the .m4p format. I want to play them on a non-Apple device. The usual suggestion is to burn them to an audio CD and then import that CD into iTunes as MP3 files, but my laptop has no optical drive. Can I create an audio-CD image, mount it with a virtual drive, and have iTunes recognize it for importing? I tried creating and mounting an image with ImgBurn and Virtual CloneDrive, but iTunes did not detect it.
3 Answers
A virtual drive probably will not solve this. iTunes generally expects an actual audio CD for that import workflow, and mounting a disc image does not always expose the same kind of disc structure. An inexpensive USB optical drive—or temporarily using another computer with an optical drive—would be the simplest option.
Some older suggestions involve renaming AAC-related extensions, but that does not apply to protected .m4p files. Since the files are DRM-protected, a virtual disc image or simple file conversion is unlikely to make them compatible. Using an external drive to create a legitimate audio-CD copy, or obtaining a DRM-free replacement where available, is more practical.
First check whether the tracks are still available for redownload from your purchase history. If the downloads remain .m4p files, they are still protected, and ordinary conversion tools such as VLC generally cannot open or convert them. Changing the extension is not a real conversion and can leave the files unusable on other devices.
I tried redownloading them, but they came back as the same .m4p files. VLC also would not convert them to MP3 or FLAC.
Borrowing an external drive or another computer should work too. It may also be worth checking your purchase history and current downloads, since some older purchases can be redownloaded in a DRM-free format, although that did not work for everyone.