How to Check If Songs Are DRM Protected in iTunes

We all know that we can enjoy Apple Music offline once we purchased the songs. We can play them on our iPhone, iPad, iPod, car player, or any other music player other Apple products. However, things don't get as smooth as that for iTunes songs purchased back in 2009 and earlier. Even though we pay for the songs, they come with DRM protection. That means you need to remove the DRM protection before you can enjoy the songs on other music players. This article will be your hassle-free guide on how to check if songs are DRM protected in iTunes.

Part 1. What's DRM

Some of you might have never heard of DRM protection before and wonder what's DRM. Let me give you a brief introduction so that you can have a better understanding.

Software, hardware, and digital content like music, videos, ebooks, DVDs, games, documents, etc. are uploaded for people who need them to purchase. The copyright of these creators, writers, and producers needed to be protected. However, some lawbreakers get the files by some illegal means and resell them for money. It's not practical for the police to catch all these law-breakers online and here comes DRM. 

DRM protection is short for Digital Rights Management. It's a scheme designed to protect creators' copyright and stop digital piracy in the first place. DRM-protected files enable you to purchase and enjoy the files on your intended device. Any files being shared, or resold for commercial purposes is illegal.

That is to say, if you purchase a song from iTunes and it is protected by DRM, you can only use it within iTunes. But if you want to enjoy the music you purchase on other devices, you might need some method to get the DRM removed first. How to tell if a song is DRM protected in iTunes? Let's move on and check the simple method in the following part:

Part 2. How to Tell If A Song Is DRM Protected in iTunes

Step 1. First of all, you need to launch your iTunes on your computer.

Step 2. Then, go to "View" > "Column Browser" > "Show Column Browser" > "Kinds".

Step 3. Now, click on any iTunes songs you would like to check and hit on "File". In the "kind" section, you can see the file kind of your song. If it is "Protected AAC audio file" shown, that means the song is DRM protected.

Now that it is protected by DRM technology, does it mean that it is impossible for us to remove DRM and export iTunes music to Android/tablet? Don't give up your hope yet. There are powerful tools to make it possible to remove DRM protection with ease. Just read on and explore:

Part 3. How to Unlock DRM from Previous iTunes Music Purchases

To unlock DRM from our iTunes Music purchases, we need to utilize some user-friendly third-party music. The one I would like to recommend to you today will be TuneFab Apple Music Converter.

TuneFab Apple Music Converter has awesome key features like:

1. Removing DRM from iTunes music with simple clicks;

2. Super-fast: Up to 16X conversion speed;

3. Multiple iTunes songs can be converted simultaneously at a time;

4. Save ID3 tags like title, artist, album, etc...

5. Compatible with Windows, Mac with the latest iTunes version;

6. Customizable output settings including sample rate, bit rate, channel, etc...

You can get a copy of this magic program and see how excellent it works:

Now, let's cut to the chase and see what we need to do to remove DRM from iTunes songs:

Step 1. Launch TuneFab Apple Music Converter

Make sure that you have the apple music converter and the latest version of the iTunes program installed on your computer.

Step 2. Browse and check DRM-ed Songs from iTunes Library

As you can see from the left panel of the interface, all iTunes files and categories are listed. You can click the "Music" section or other ones as you want and the songs in it will be listed on the right. You can browse and select those you want by clicking the box next to the song.

Step 3. Select Output Format

At the bottom of the interface, there's also an output setup area. Here you can choose the output format you would like. All the popular music formats like M4A, AC3, AAC, AIFF, and AU are included.

If you would like to locate your converted iTunes songs easier, you can also create a folder as an output folder.

Step 4. Start Removing DRM from Previous iTunes Purchased Songs

Now that everything is set up, you can simply click on the "Convert" button from the top to start the process. The detailed process of the DRM removal will be seen in the interface. You can easily locate it by clicking "Explore Output File" as shown in the interface.

Here you go, all the songs you chose back in step 2 are perfectly converted into the selected music format after removing DRM protection. You can now enjoy the iTunes purchased songs on any device you want. But please keep in mind that DRM removal is illegal if your purpose is to resell the songs for money. If you have any questions, please bear in mind that we are always here at your service. Just leave your question below in the comment section.