I had purchased some music from iTunes but I forgot they use that horrible proprietary m4a format and I can’t play the files at all on my devices. So I was going to convert them to mp3, which is when I remembered I had Audacity installed already. Unfortunately it’s reading the files as having 0 length to them. Additionally, the website-based converters are generating error messages trying to do the converting. Any advice?
The original Itunes downloads were copy-protected but purchased songs shouldn’t be protected anymore. (The Internet says they stopped that in 2009.)
ANY audio playing on your computer can be recorded.
Additionally, the website-based converters are generating error messages trying to do the converting.
On Windows, I use Kabuu Audio Converter. I believe iTunes can do it too, but neither will work if it’s copy protected.
Here is something I found about removing the copy protection. It appears to be legit and allowed by Apple, if it still works…
M4A (= MP4 = AAC) is almost as universal as MP3 and theoretically you’ll get better quality if you retain that format as a non copy protected copy. (The copy protection also limits where it can be played… Your friends can’t play your files or copies of your files.)
It was originally designed to be an improvement over MP3. And unlike MP3, damage doesn’t accumulate with successive generations of re-encoding.
Yeah, Kabuu isn’t working either. For each song in the album, it says “a file failed” and then it says:
Command line: -y -threads 1 -i “C:\Users\t74bd\Music\César y su Jardín\CORRE Y SUELTA A LOS PERROS\César y su Jardín - CORRE Y SUELTA A LOS PERROS - 03 - INTERLUDIO MORDIDA.m4a” -i “C:\Users\t74bd\AppData\Local\Temp\KabuuTempCoverArt\DEE0071F-10EB-4E82-A78A-82FD2924672A.jpg” -map 0:0 -map 1:0 -c:a libmp3lame -c:v mjpeg -b:a 256k -af aresample=resampler=soxr -ar 44100 -ac 2 “C:\Users\t74bd\OneDrive\Documents\KabuuAudio\Mp3\C\Users\t74bd\Music\César y su Jardín\CORRE Y SUELTA A LOS PERROS\César y su Jardín - CORRE Y SUELTA A LOS PERROS - 03 - INTERLUDIO MORDIDA.mp3”
So I’m assuming maybe it is in fact copy-protection. However, it’s weird that I can’t even play the files. Windows Media Player and others won’t even play, and even iTunes, where I purchased them from, generates no sound as playing progresses.
That’s a problem because that means you can’t re-record them. 
I found Updating music to DRM-free version. (But, their 1st suggestion of burning a CD won’t work if you can’t even play them.)
I don’t know how they are “authorized” to play and for all I know, Apple doesn’t even support that anymore. Or, you may not have the same computer or the same user name, and probably not the same old version of iTunes, etc.
Did they ever play in Windows Media Player? …I’ve never bought any iTunes, copy protected or not.. I’ve bought MP3s from Amazon and they were never copy protected.
I’m not sure, I normally don’t use it. But I have purchased albums from iTunes a couple times in the past (usually when the artist has chosen that as the only place you can do so, which is the case with this album), and I’ve been able to convert the files in those situations to mp3s. I’m actually wondering if it might just be that there’s something wrong with the files in this specific album. This is pretty far from a mainstream album, and it’s possible that, of the people who have used iTunes to listen to it, I might be the only one who has downloaded files for playing locally.
Onedrive is cloud storage. It could be you no longer have access to the files stored there.
Dear Trebor.
Can think of a few workarounds. One, try finding the tracks on YouTube and download them with Mediahuman YouTube Downloader (no, this is NOT spam, it’s just the one I happen to use!) Or record them with Audacity while they’re playing on YouTube.
If you can’t find them there, try Spotify and record them from there.
If THAT fails, check to see the files aren’t zero bytes (if they’re failed downloads from OneDrive, they’ll have the right extension but zero length!) and try drag-dropping them in a browser window. But do this first…
In Firefox, go to about:preferences and ensure “Play DRM-controlled content” is enabled, and that about:addons (in the plugins tab) Widevine is enabled. In Edge, click the more options button at the top right. From the menu, select Settings. The “Play DRM…” bit should be there. You might also be able to remove write protection using Properties…
- Open File Explorer, find the file you want to delete.
- Right-click the target file, and choose Properties.
- Under the General tab, there is an “Attributes” option. …
- Uncheck the Read-only option, click OK to save your change.
That could do it!
If all else fails, tell me the name of the album you’re after and I’ll do the best I can to find it and give you a link to it in DRM-free form! The zero bytes bit in your post worries me because it might be - like I said above - it’s a failed OneDrive download so the files are all empty. But I’d try all the above, and then I’d ask me to find a working copy of the album (I’m good at that sorta thing!)
Yours respectfully,
Chris.
It sounds like the M4A files you’re trying to convert might be protected by DRM, which is common with music purchased from iTunes, especially older tracks. Unfortunately, Audacity (even with FFmpeg installed) can’t import DRM-protected files, which is why they’re showing up as 0 seconds long.
If the tracks are not protected, make sure you’ve got the latest version of FFmpeg correctly linked in Audacity’s preferences under Libraries. That’s essential for handling M4A files.
As a workaround, if DRM is the issue, you might consider burning the tracks to an audio CD using iTunes, then ripping the CD back into MP3 format. It’s a bit of a manual process but legally safe if it’s for personal use.
Hope that helps!
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