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Old 04-16-2008, 01:59 AM
CrayDeng
 
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Remove DRM from protected WMA


What is DRM? Why do we remove DRM WMA?
Have you ever downloaded music from Windows Media Player, iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Spiral Frog? These popular music download programs among the music fans always come with a disgusting word - "DRM".

DRM (Digital Rights Management) - The anti consumer copy protection that prevents you from using music in a way that suits you. For example, if a WMA you downloaded from WMP(windows media player) that has DRM, you can only play it back on a compatible device, so if every piece of music had DRM on it you would need to buy the same track on CD to listen in your CD player or car, as an iTunes download to play on your iPod, as a ms store download to play on your Zune etc, but since you paid for it once you shouldn’t be forced to pay for it again and again and again, remove the DRM and you can play it on your phone, iPod, Zune, PSP, CD player, pc, and anything else that you can listen to music on.

How to remove DRM from WMA?
I got a few methods listed below:
  • Re-record
    One of the most common and simple technology is recording the DRM protected WMA then use an ordinary converter to convert the recorded and unprotected files. Because this technology is easy to realized and easy to support more DRM formats besides protected WMA it is welcomed by most of the DRM converters like the Soundtaxi, etc.
    But there are some disadvantages for those programs.
    a. The conversion speed won’t get much improvement due to the long recording process.
    b. Much audio and video quality could be lost during the recording process.
    Luckily DRM removal software like SoundTaxi and Tunebite works much faster than in real time.
  • Burn and rip
    Actually, there is a common free method to remove DRM WMA with 2 steps:
    Step 1 Burn the protected WMA to a CD
    Step 2 Rip them off to your computer, then the DRM should be removed from the WMA files.
    But it’s not very convenient and may wear out your CR-ROM. And windows media player can only burn and rip the WMA (or you will need DVD copy and DVD ripper for other formats).
    However you can use a virtual CD burner and ripper Note Burner. It works much faster and you don't even need a real CD/DVD drive.
  • Hook
    Hook is another new and more complicated technology which can be used to remove the DRM from protected WMA files. Compared to recording process, these sorts of programs have much higher conversion speed, but it’s hard to make it support some DRM formats with new and lofty encrpytion tachniques.
    And as far as I know, Daniusoft was one of its supporters. Daniusoft Digital Media Converter can remove DRM from protected WMA files, it also supports other formats conversion and audio extraction from WMV.
Ok, Hope you can get some useful resources from this article (How to remove DRM from protected WMA should not annoy you anymore).
If you have any suggestion or want to do some modification please feel free to contact me.
Remove DRM from your favorite music to release you music life.
Have Fun.
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