Remove the DRM from iTune purchased music

Most of us who have purchased iTunes music know that we can remove the DRM from the M4P audio files by burning the music onto a CD. But if you have a large collection, this can be very time consuming -- though having your music backed up to CD isn't a bad idea. For those of you who do not relish the idea of bacing up each every track, there might be a solution available for you.

1. This first program, MagicISO, will convert up to 3 minutes per song for 14 days without purchasing -- I tried a song under 3 minutes and it seemed to work fine. You can buy it for $30 or get it free when you buy a 3rd party item or service through their site. For example, you can get the 2009 Entertainment Book for $25.
2. Your second option is NoteBurner -- a $35 software that will allow you to burn to a virtual CD, and then back to MP3s. This batch converter works with iTunes, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Winamp, and SonicStage.
3. Another option is TuneBite. TuneBite appears to play and capture, getting you an exact copy. I think there could be a risk of error if ran on a slow computer, though. Its trial captures the first 1 minute, which worked without a flaw on my testing. It also has other features such as capturing YouTube videos. This software runs for $27.
4. If you're looking for something for free and you are running iTunes 7 or earlier, you might try myFairTunes7. I couldn't test this one as I am on iTunes 8, but it looks promising. Being that this is an open source project, it wouldn't surprise me if it eventually had a version released that supported iTunes 8.
5. Another option for iTunes 7 users is QTFairUse from DVD John. This program has received a lot of press, as every time iTunes got a new release, this program has been updated. Again, this is a potential program that will have iTunes version 8 support before too long.

So there you have 5 good solutions. If you still want to do it the Apple way, here are some instructions on how to burn a CD at a time.

If you're looking for alternatives to iTunes for the source of your music, Sony just announced an agreement with Dada.net, selling DRM free tracks for only $0.66. Perhaps you want a bigger collection? Try Amazon.com's music store. Rock on.

Update 12:30 pm 07-Oct-2008: I might also add that some songs are available through iTunes (iTunes Plus) that are DRM free.