With more than 70 million songs in its catalog and availability across 50+ countries, Apple Music is one of the most successful music streaming services. But, like any other streaming service at this point, it has some limitations that might not go well with some users.
- Apple Music tracks are DRM-protected. They can only be played on specific devices, using the official Apple Music apps or web apps.
- Tracks you download in your Apple Music library are only playable if you have an active subscription. If your Apple Music subscription expires, you can no longer play these songs.
However, there are workarounds using which you can remove DRM protection from Apple Music files and make them playable on any device, with any app. In this article, we’ll explore one such DRM removal tool for Apple Music called TuneFab Apple Music Converter. It’s a macOS and Windows utility that can convert Apple’s protected “.m4p” files to DRM-free “.mp3” files.
Note: The method mentioned here can help enhance your music listening experience, letting you play your favorite songs even on devices that don’t have Apple Music. But do note that DRM removal may be illegal depending on how you use it. It should only be considered for personal use (assuming you already have an Apple Music subscription) and not for illegal copying and distribution of music.
How to remove DRM from Apple Music – Apple Music to MP3
TuneFab Apple Music Converter provides a simple UI that allows you to convert Apple Music DRM files to MP3 format with ease. It uses the official Music or iTunes app on your converter to stream and convert files on the fly.
The below steps describe how you can convert DRM-protected Apple Music files to MP3 using TuneFab Apple Music Converter.
- Download and install TuneFab Apple Music Converter for Mac or Windows PC.
- Launch the app and wait for it to load. You should be able to view your Apple Music library with all your music and playlists.
- Scroll and select a song that you want to convert. You can also select multiple songs at once.
- At the bottom-left section, verify the Output Format, Profile, Output Folder, and File Name.
- At the bottom-right, choose the Codec, Bitrate, Sample Rate, and Channels. These settings will change depending on the Profile selected in the previous step.
- When the selections are done, click on the Convert button at the top of the app window. The conversion process will be shown in a separate window.
Apple Music Converter will automatically launch the Music or iTunes app on your computer, stream the selected tracks, and convert them on the fly. After the conversion is completed, your selected tracks will be available in the Output Format of your choice, saved to the preferred Output Folder.
TuneFab recommends not to use the Music or iTunes app while conversion is in progress. Usually, any other audio activity in other apps will be ignored, and you’ll get a clean audio recording sample at the end of the conversion process.
Note 1: The software copies the song metadata (ID3 Tags), including the album artwork, from the original file.
Note 2: You can even rip the audio from videos on Apple Music using the above process. Just ensure, the particular videos that you’re looking to convert, are available in your music library. Apple Music Converter supports conversion in MP3, M4A, AC3, AAC, AIFF, AU, FLAC, M4R, MKA, and WAV formats.
The Mac version of TuneFab Apple Music Converter can only convert songs or videos at 1X speed, while the Windows version of the tool can convert at up to 16X speeds. For Mac users, there’s another alternative version of the tool available, known as Apple Music Converter Lite (Mac), which supports up to 5X conversion speeds.
Currently, the app has a few issues with the latest release of macOS and is not fully compatible with Big Sur. The TuneFab technical team is working on fixing the issues. We’ll update this article when the new version is available with full support for macOS Big Sur.
Overall, in our tests, it seemed to deliver the output converted files without any problems or disruptions. For the music samples converted at 320kbps (maximum bitrate) using a 44.1kHz (default) sampling rate, there was no noticeable loss in audio quality between the original and the converted songs.
Apple Music Converter Pricing
TuneFab Apple Music Converter offers a free trial of 30 days, during which you can convert up to the first 3 minutes of any song on Apple Music. This should provide sufficient time for you to try out the product and find out if it’s suitable for your conversion purposes. If you’re looking for this type of solution and it works well for you, you can choose to unlock the full version by purchasing a valid license key.
A single Mac or PC license for TuneFab Apple Music Converter costs $39.95, while a dual license of 1 Mac + 1 PC costs $63.92. There’s also a Family Pack available, which provides a license for up to 5 Macs or 5 PCs, and costs $79.95. Alternatively, a single license for the Lite version (PC or Mac) is available for $34.95.
All the licenses are Lifetime licenses, allowing you access to the current version of the app (with all interim updates and bug fixes) for a lifetime. However, a major new release might require the purchase of a new license.