From: Jacob Rau <jacob.rau_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:54:51 -0400

>>
>> Is it true that you can't play music downloaded from iTunes store using
>> Rockbox? If so, why is that?
>

The blatantly obvious fix to this situation is to burn, then rip the
encrypted songs. Sure, it will use many CD-Rs if you have a decent
library built up, but it's a last-ditch effort solution for a problem
created by Apple. And this solution is completely within iTunes. The
downside is that there is a bit of quality lost because you are
decoding a lossy file, then re-encoding to a lossy file. Then again,
audiophiles wouldn't be downloading lossy files from iTunes in the
first place.

As an alternative, there is a Windows-only application called
myFairTunes. It only works for something like version 7.0.5 or
earlier, as Apple sent a "cease-and-desist" letter awhile back.
However, this strips the encryption off the songs and spits them out
with an m4a extension--AAC format; this format is easily played by
Rockbox. You will need to search the web for this application as the
cease-and-desist shut down the HYMN project where it was hosted.
MajorGeeks had a version of this up last time I checked.

If you are using a Windows machine, your music will probably end up in
your "My Documents" folder, under "iTunes Music". There, if you find a
file with a .m4p extension, it's encrypted, and if you find a file
with a .m4a or .mp3 extension, it can be copied to a Rockbox-capable
player and should play just fine.

Good luck defeating the anal-retentive system Apple has put into
place. And for future reference, you are probably better off buying
the CD. You will get pure, unencrypted, full-quality audio as opposed
to the lossy, encrypted AAC files Apple has to offer.

Jacob
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Received on 2008-07-16