How to Legally Remove DRM from Audio Files, Music and Audiobooks

Replaced your old media player with a new model from a different company? Have a huge music library that won't play on the brand new gadget Mom bought you for your birthday? Does your local library have an extensive audiobook collection that won't work with your media player because of copy protection (aka DRM) that's not compatible?

Tunebite comes to the rescue with digital recording technology that removes DRM from copy-protected music and audiobooks and converts the files to MP3, OGG or WMA.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Computer running Windows XP or Vista
• Tunebite
• Windows Media Player (latest version)
• iTunes (latest version)

Setting up Tunebite

1. Download and install Tunebite on your computer. When you run Tunebite for the first time, it will take you through a wizard to detect your sound card. Keep hitting "next" until it's done.

2. 

   Click on "Options" to open up the options window.

3. 

   Click on the "Output" tab. Here, you can specify where you want the converted files saved, and if you want to re-name the files once they've been converted.

4. 

   Click on the button with the three dots (ellipses) in the "Output Folder" section of the Output Tab in Tunebite's "Options" window. This will bring up an Explorer window so you can navigate to the folder you want the converted files stored.

5. 

   If you want to convert to MP3, which is the most compatible file format, go to the "File Format" tab in the "Options" window of Tunebite.

6. 

   Click the "Import lame_enc.dll" button. This will open up your Web browser and search Google for the file "lame_enc.dll". Download this file and put it somewhere safe (not the desktop).

7. Go back to the "File Format" tab and click the "Import lame_enc.dll". Tunebite will import the file and allow you to convert your tunes to MP3s.

8. Hit "OK" at the bottom of this screen.

Converting Your Audiobooks or Songs

1. 

   Launch Tunebite.

2. Open up the folder where the copy-protected songs or audiobooks are stored on your hard drive.

3. 

   Drag and drop these files into the "Songs to Record" section of Tunebite.

4. 

   Click the "Digital Dubbing" button below the big "Go" button. This will allow high-speed dubbing so the recording will take less time.

5. 

   Hit the "Go" button. Tunebite will start recording each song and saving it in the folder you specified.

6. At this point you may want to mute your computer since Tunebite will launch Windows Media Player or iTunes (whichever supports that DRM format), and the songs or audiobook will play at around 4x the speed.

7. When Tunebite is done, you'll have all your converted songs or audiobooks in a format your media player can use.

Tips & Warnings

• Steps 5-8 are only necessary if you want to convert files to MP3's. OGG and WMA support is available and you don't have to deal with any extra steps.

• Yes, this is legal.

Resources

• Tunebite