# iTunes iRritants



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Recently bought HJ Lim's set of Beethoven piano sonatas from iTunes. There are in total 98 music files, plus the booklet (which is why I bought from the iTunes store rather than Amazon).

40 of the files are m4a, which can play fine everywhere. 58 are m4p, which can't. They are DRM copy protected and can't be converted to play on my Foobar or anywhere else except iTunes or an iPod.

Is this par for the course for Apple? I asked for a refund five days ago and am still waiting for resolution. The few issues I've had with Amazon have always been dealt with instantly.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

KenOC said:


> Recently bought HJ Lim's set of Beethoven piano sonatas from iTunes. There are in total 98 music files, plus the booklet (which is why I bought from the iTunes store rather than Amazon).
> 
> 40 of the files are m4a, which can play fine everywhere. 58 are m4p, which can't. They are DRM copy protected and can't be converted to play on my Foobar or anywhere else except iTunes or an iPod.
> 
> Is this par for the course for Apple? I asked for a refund five days ago and am still waiting for resolution. The few issues I've had with Amazon have always been dealt with instantly.


I bought that box set and they are all m4a.That is odd.

Redownload those again. I played that box set on my Android phones easily.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

The store seems to have two listings for the Lim sonatas. I suspect I chose the wrong one. Right now I simply want them gone and I'll get Amazon's instead.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

m4p and m4a are basically the same kind of file. The difference is that m4p has FairPlay protection. If the Apple store carries the album as m4a, just contact them and get them to swap the unprotected for your protected files. The other alternative is to just convert the m4p files to an audio CD, then back to m4a at a bitrate equal to or greater than the m4p. If you used a AAC again, there shouldn't be any audio quality hit, because the encoder will find that the sound will easily encode without any processing.

It's always good to scan the item description in the store to make sure you aren't buying an old hangover from the DRM days that they haven't gotten around to swapping for non-DRM yet.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

So far, five days later, the Apple store is saying...nothing. I don't want to mess with this, just my money back.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I don't know much about m4a, b, or z, other than my audiobook collection is mostly in that format, but the lack of a pdf file liner booklet for digital downloads puzzles me. I mean, how hard can it be? I guess they want to keep something in reserve to make CDs attractive, but I would have thought the superior sound quality would be attractive enough for some.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Amazon, for some reason, just about never offers a PDF of the CD booklet with its downloads. They can sometimes be found for free download on the Naxos Music Library, well worth checking.


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## Guest (Jun 23, 2015)

That is weird. They switched away from the protected files a long time ago. Like already said, there is a very simple fix. Burn a CD, then rip it again in a new format. I had a problem with an iTunes purchase before, and while it took about a day to get back to me, they did. I bought a copy of Shostakovich's Babi Yar symphony, and one of the tracks was empty. They refunded me the entire cost, and I got to keep the files. I honestly just wanted the missing track - they still haven't fixed it.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

This was part of Apple's response, received five days ago:

"I have checked your account however, this item is currently processing. Your email is flagged for follow-up, and I will contact you once I have more information about your order. Please note that processing can take up to five business days from the date of purchase. Thank you for your patience in this matter."

Not sure which century Apple is operating in.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

KenOC said:


> This was part of Apple's response, received five days ago:
> 
> "I have checked your account however, this item is currently processing. Your email is flagged for follow-up, and I will contact you once I have more information about your order. Please note that processing can take up to five business days from the date of purchase. Thank you for your patience in this matter."
> 
> Not sure which century Apple is operating in.


Don't forget that Apple is way busier than Amazon mp3 and they take longer to respond back. patience is a virtue in this game.


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## Guest (Jun 23, 2015)

I have never been a huge fan of Apple's customer service. I HATE going into an Apple store, getting swarmed by a bunch of hipsters with their disdain for an actual register. One of the things that has always annoyed me about Apple has been their philosophy that they, and not you, are always right. Hence their disdain for any kind of customizability for any of their products - they know exactly what you want.

That being said, I am typing this response on a MacBook Air, while my iPod Touch is syncing to my iTunes account. iTunes does have a really impressive classical music selection, which is why I put up with it.

Hopefully they will sort it out. Like I said, I would just burn the damn thing to CD, then rip it again to your computer in AAC format, or whatever format you prefer.


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## Guest (Jun 23, 2015)

No physical Apple store in this far flung part of the barbarian outback.

Not mad on Apple; I was given an iPod and managed to fill it with music but they seem very protective of their "data."

Also: I bought an album where one of the pieces on it was actually NOT the piece by the artist at all, but another artist entirely (just coincidentally with the same song title). I ended up having a bit of an email exchange with the artist and he essentially said that he was aware of this and had attempted on several occasions over a long period of time to get the matter rectified but without success. In his opinion, if you are Lady Gaga it would have got fixed immediately otherwise you can go swivel.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Now fixed, finally. "...although most of our music videos are not DRM-protected, there are still some that are, and there is currently no way to identify them prior to purchase. I’m glad to inform you that I have reversed the charge for your purchase."


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

The Apple store is pretty good with customer service. Amazing considering the number of transactions they have. It might take a few days, but you aren't going to find many online retailers where they can turn stuff around any faster.


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## Guest (Jun 23, 2015)

I will grant that they typically refund your money pretty easily. Maybe you have to wait 5 days, but you don't really have to argue with them about it. And they don't expect you to delete what you have already downloaded. So you still ended up with 40 free m4a files and the digital file of the CD sleeve.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

I don't know if this works for this case, but if you have a subscription to iTunes Match, you may be able to download DRM-free music files.

Some DRM tracks can be upgraded to iTunes Plus

I subscribed to iTunes Match only in order to get DRM-free tracks for the musics I purchased from iTunes store before it had become DRM-free, and it worked fine.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I love iTunes. I never had an issue with them ever.


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