Apple Music allows subscribers to enjoy up to 100,000 track downloads and offline playback across different devices. That seems nice. However, the downloads are exclusive to playing in the Apple Music app and instantly unavailable when the plan expires. For your favorite tracks, you may want to keep a backup of Apple Music before they disappear.
Transferring Apple Music to a USB flash drive might be a wise solution, as you can play the music via various playback devices, such as car stereo systems, Bluetooth speakers, and gaming consoles. So, is it possible to transfer Apple Music to USB? The answer is YES. In this article, we will walk you through the easy steps to transfer Apple Music to USB. Just read on.
Part 1. Where Are Apple Music Downloads Stored
Since Apple Music offers the download feature, the downloads must be cached and stored on your device. By default, these Apple Music files are saved in the "iTunes Media" folder. To access them, navigate to the below location.
- macOS: /Users/[Your username]/Music/Music/Media/Music/
- Windows: C:\Users\Yourusername\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media
- Android: Internal Storage\Android\data\com.apple.android.music\files\Media
Note: Unfortunately, the destination folder is inaccessible on iOS devices
Perhaps you may find the downloads are unplayable after you put Apple Music to USB. That's because Apple Music tracks are encrypted with DRM technology, which restricts you to playing the music only within Apple Music. Don't worry, there is still a way out. Scroll down and read the next section to tackle the issue.
Part 2. Full Guide to Download and Put Apple Music onto USB
Due to Digital Rights Management applied to the songs from Apple Music, you need to rely on professional DRM-removal software to break the encryption and transcode protected Apple Music tracks to a flexible, and commonly used audio format, for example, MP3.
TuneFab Apple Music Converter is such an expert at removing DRM restrictions and decoding tracks from Apple Music to download and transfer to a USB flash drive in an easy and direct way.
Learn More About TuneFab Apple Music Converter
- Support advanced DRM decryption technology to fetch unlimited Apple Music tracks
- Export CD quality audio output in MP3, M4A, FLAC, and WAV formats
- 20X decoding rate with stable performance and a high success rate
- Batch download a whole playlist or album with a click
- Preserve original music ID3 metadata information
- Embedded Apple Music web player to quickly extract Apple Music songs
TuneFab Apple Music Converter enables a direct way to copy Apple music onto a USB stick/flash drive. Let's check out the simple steps.
Step 1. Install and open TuneFab Apple Music Converter on your Windows/Mac computer. Then, select Apple Music as the stre0aming platform. The converter doesn't require you to log in, which is quite convenient and flexible. However, an Apple Music account can lead to a higher conversion success rate.
Step 2. Insert your USB flash drive or stick into your computer. Then, navigate to the three-line dropdown menu > "Preferences" > "General" > "Output" > "Browse." Locate your USB drive and select it as the output folder.
Note: Make sure that your USB is readable by your computer and is performing normally. Additionally, you can preset the output format, bitrate, and sample rate for all downloaded Apple music by switching to the "Advanced" tab.
Step 3. Search for your favorite singles, playlists, and albums from the built-in Apple Music web player. Click the "Add to Convert" button to start the conversion process.
Step 4. With all the output settings completed, you can click "Convert Now" directly to download all the selected titles to your USB. Track the progress in "Scheduled Task." Wait for a few minutes and your favorite Apple Music tracks will be successfully saved to your USB stick.
Part 3. FAQs About Transfering Apple Music to USB
Before we go any further, you may want to check out these FAQs to learn more about the trouble of transferring tracks from Apple Music.
Q1. Are Tracks from Apple Music Transferable?
There are many posts on forums such as Quora, Reddit, and Apple Community asking questions like:
- Can you put music from Apple Music onto a USB flash drive?
- How do I transfer tracks from Apple Music to a USB stick?
- Why can't I transfer the Apple Lossless songs I downloaded to my computer?
- ....
Apple has developed its own audio compression techniques to encrypt and restrict Apple Music tracks to be accessed, modified, and transferred by unauthorized devices, which are known as Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) and Advanced Audio Codec (AAC). You might be aware that the tracks you downloaded from Apple Music aren't able to be played on other music players but the Apple Music app.
Therefore, the official answer is NO thanks to its Digital Right Management technology. However, some professional tools like TuneFab Apple Music Converter make it workable to download and transfer Apple Lossless music anywhere you want.
Q2. What Devices Are Supported to Play Songs in USB?
After transferring Apple Music to a USB flash drive, it's possible to put the songs on almost any device including CarPlay, Windows computers, Mac, HomePod, smart audio speakers, smart TVs, and even Android phones with an adapter.
Google search indicates that people search a lot on how to put music on USB to car radio or head unit. That's true. I often hook up my USB flash drive to my car and enjoy Apple Lossless music while driving all the way.
Final Words
Transferring Apple Music tracks onto a USB flash drive is a great workaround to permanently keep your favorite songs. Although Apple Music offers the download feature, due to DRM protection, you are unable to play them outside the app. But with TuneFab Apple Music Converter, you can bypass the restrictions, and directly save lossless Apple Music tracks to a USB drive. Meta info can also be preserved for effortless management. If you are in need, don't hesitate to give it a go!
