Copy iTunes song?
September 5, 2011 7:11 AM   Subscribe

She bought a song in iTunes. How can I copy it to my computer?

She bought a song on her iTunes account and has it on her Mac. I want it on my computer.
I DON'T WANT TO:
• access it over a network
• share an iTunes account
• use her account
• hack iTunes
I just want the content to reside on my computer, playable in iTunes. Is this doable under the Jobs Rules?
posted by LonnieK to Media & Arts (12 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: Didn't mean 'I don't want to use a network to xfer the song.' I meant 'I'm not looking to listen to this song over a network while it still resides on her computer.'
posted by LonnieK at 7:14 AM on September 5, 2011


The iTunes store doesn't use DRM anymore, at least for music. Just copy the file however you like — email, USB drive, network share, or whatever — and play it in any program that supports AAC.
posted by teraflop at 7:21 AM on September 5, 2011


iTunes music has no DRM on it. Find the file, put it on a USB, copy to your computer. It should just work.

I do not endorse this as a way to skirt copyright law.
posted by griffey at 7:21 AM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


Unless there is some sort of built in protection that I'm not aware of (I've never bought anything from iTunes), just right-click on the song, click "show in finder", then drag that mp3 to a USB flash drive.
posted by Homo economicus at 7:22 AM on September 5, 2011


The way we do it in my house is via iTunes home sharing feature. You can turn on on her computer, and the first time you access her library from your machine she'll have to provide her iTunes info, but after that you can view the library anytime you've both got the program open.

Once you're viewing the library, you can select a song and hit "import" and it will save a local copy.

... you can also share boughten Apps this way, which is super nice.
posted by Wulfhere at 7:31 AM on September 5, 2011


Response by poster: Thx to all. Should have mentioned this too: She got Mac, I got Windows. Still work?
If not, is there a way?
posted by LonnieK at 7:52 AM on September 5, 2011


Yep, it's just a file. Copy the file.
posted by mendel at 7:58 AM on September 5, 2011


Mac/Windows combination is fine for both iTunes home sharing and copying the file, as long as both computers can read the USB drive (which is more likely than not).
posted by thegears at 7:58 AM on September 5, 2011


Yeah, as long as it's not an older file that had DRM, you should be fine. They haven't used DRM for about 2 years.

(Aside: the DRM rules were not Jobs Rules, but required by the music companies.)
posted by The Deej at 8:03 AM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thx again! This is wonderful news.
posted by LonnieK at 8:05 AM on September 5, 2011


Burn to CD, rip CD.
posted by maryr at 12:23 PM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


Burn to CD, rip CD.

Preferable not to, you'll be re-encoding the file in MP3/AAC/whatever, which will reduce quality (marginally).
posted by thegears at 3:57 PM on September 5, 2011


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