Archive for category TECH

Ever purchase DRM music from Walmart, Yahoo, MSN, Rhapsody, or Napster music store? Ever tried to transfer those songs to your new mp3 player or burn those songs to disc because you thought you actually own the music you bought? Then you have probably faced the same problems I have run into with DRM music. Most recently, more and more stores are getting rid of their DRM collection and going DRM free. Their is still a chance you could run into DRM music which leads me to my topic for the day, “DRM Free Your Music.”

What is DRM? DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. This is one way the Recording Industry is trying to control the digital music downloads that you legally purchures from music stores like Napster, Walmart, Yahoo, etc. So how does it work? well, think of it as like a lock and key. The song DRM song is usually locked down when you download it. The only way to play that song is to play the song with the one specific PC or specific mp3 player (which is the key). If you would like to play the song with any other device you may have to buy an addition copy of the song or ask the music store for some sort of reset tool that will allow you to play the track on another device. Seems kind of like a big hassle for something which you rightful paid for, right? Is their a way to remove DRM? The anwser is kind of yes and no. In reality you can’t remove the DRM code within the song itself, but you can re-record the song to another audio file format without DRM. One of the best programs for the job is Tunebite.

Tunebite is a program you can purchase to help remove the DRM from you music collection. Tunebite has other features like audio conversion, music tagging, and others. The best features is the DRM removal function. How does it work? Tunebite in simple terms, just re-records the audio feed from the DRM music file to a new music file without the DRM. Wait, so that means it will take the length of the song to make a new none DRM free song right? Wrong! Tunebite has a feature that re-records the song at a much faster rate. So you wont have to wait 4-5 miniutes for a song to be re-recorded. Also if you specify a folder where most of you DRM music is it will keep try of the ones that have been re-recorded and ones that have not been. It will also do re-records of other songs at the sametime. Not only does it re-record a song at a fast rate but it can do other  re-records of other songs at the sametime. Based on my personal experience I have had as many as 5 songs being re-recorded at the sametime. But what about the audio quality of the new song DRM free song you just made. Tunebite does such a great job at the re-record, you can’t tell the difference. For the 6 months I have been using the program I have yet to run into a song I re-recorded that sounded different from the original.

What does this mean to you with this new DRM free music of yours. It means you can play it on anything you want to. You can play it on you new mp3 player you bought, your wifes laptop, burn a copy to play in your car stereo, or let a friend borrow it. So now it actually seems like you own the song you paid for. If you have ever run into DRM music problems, take it from me and try out Tunebite.