Need help freeing myself from iTunes! iTunes-free music setups requested

[anon(5384869)]

Up until recently, I exclusively used iPods and iTunes for music listening and purchasing. However, I'm ready to consolidate everything to my Android phone, meaning having all of my music and podcasts on it. Some of this I have figured out, but I'd like to hear other people's "success stories" when leaving Apple music services and happily use their Android phones for all their music needs. Here are some specifics.

1. I have about 700 songs I've purchased from iTunes over the years, some is DRM protected, and thus I can't play it on anything that is NOT an Apple product. Others, are purchases after they stopped this practice (I can't remember the name...iTunes Plus?), as some work with my phone already. I need help to identify which songs out of all of my purchases are "protected."
2. My current setup is: I have all my music in my iTunes folder, I use iTunes's podcast subscriber to keep up with podcasts. I do, however, use iSyncr to synchronize all that to my phone. This is a decent setup, but it doesn't sync stuff that Apple's protected.
3. I'd like to eliminate iTunes from my life entirely, meaning getting my "protected" music working on my phone, keep it all on there by simply dragging the Artist folders onto my phone, and using Play Music app to listen to it, and using Pocketcast for my podcast needs.

My questions are:
- How do I identify which songs from iTunes are DRM protected, so I know what's all missing from my phone?
- How have you all gotten your DRM protected stuff to work on your phones? I'm aware of the CD burning trick, but 700 songs is a lot. Does anyone have a fix for this many songs?
- What music applications do you all use on your computers? Do you use iTunes strictly to listen to stuff on your computer and just never buy from their store, or do you use WMP, or some other program? I'd like something that does not depend on an internet connection (like streaming from Play music, Spotify, etc).

Any other feedback on your setups for music and podcasts on your Android devices is welcome as well. Help me free myself from Apple's clutches!!!

 

[cole2kb]

It's going to take a little bit of work, but this is possible.

It's been a LONG time since I've used iTunes, so they might have a better option for this, you may just be better off hitting up Apple support and asking them how you can ensure your entire library is or can be replaced with DRM free MP3s.

The way I would go about it is using my computer to search for any files with an M4P extension (this is the extension that all protected music from iTunes has). Once you know which ones are there, create a Playlist in iTunes. Click and drag all those files straight into your iTunes playlist window. Then, select all those tracks in iTunes, right click and there should be some sort of "Convert to MP3" option. If you can't do the click and drag trick, you can actually move those files into a new folder, and tell iTunes that is where your music library is. It should re-scan and then you will only see your protected files (because those would be the only files in that folder). If NEITHER of those work, you'll have to seek them out one by one and convert them one at a time.

As far as DRM protected content on my Android devices, I just make sure to buy from sources that I know will play on my device. Amazon's flicks will NOT play, but you can get stuff from Google Play, Netflix, CinemaNow, Vudu, Redbox Instant, etc...

Music playing software: can't help you there, I use Google Music and Spotify.

Podcasts: import all your feeds into an app called PocketCasts. Best pod catcher app for Android...period.

 

[anon(5384869)]

Thanks for the feedback! Here's what I've found so far.

DRM protected iTunes purchases are "Protected AAC files" under the "Kind" column. So far, I have a total of 156 of these songs. Apple offers a way to remove the protection from these files if i subscribe to iTunes Match (their cloud service), and I can do it for $25/year, but I'm not sure if I need to keep subscribing to this service to keep my DRM-free music (if I stop subscribing after I've "upgraded" the songs, will I lose them?), or if it's mine as soon as it's saved on my computers HDD.

I definitely agree with you on PocketCasts. That's gonna me my new Podcast app.

As far as future music purchases go, are Play Music purchases protected or will they play nice with all of my devices? I think they are just mp3's yes?

 

[badbrad17]

Thanks for the feedback! Here's what I've found so far.

DRM protected iTunes purchases are "Protected AAC files" under the "Kind" column. So far, I have a total of 156 of these songs. Apple offers a way to remove the protection from these files if i subscribe to iTunes Match (their cloud service), and I can do it for $25/year, but I'm not sure if I need to keep subscribing to this service to keep my DRM-free music (if I stop subscribing after I've "upgraded" the songs, will I lose them?), or if it's mine as soon as it's saved on my computers HDD.

I definitely agree with you on PocketCasts. That's gonna me my new Podcast app.

As far as future music purchases go, are Play Music purchases protected or will they play nice with all of my devices? I think they are just mp3's yes?

I haven't tried this but it looks like this would do the trick. It appears to do batches of files.
http://www.aimersoft.com/aac-to-mp3-converter.html

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[cole2kb]

I would imagine as long as this iTunes Match service lets you download the DRM free tracks, you could just pay the fee and cancel the service when you're done downloading.

Google Play and Amazon both provide DRM-free MP3s.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD