Many people are fond of making slideshows on their Windows Movie Maker, however, it won't let them import any purchased music as it is DRM protected. Since iTunes store tops the music retailer in the world, the following tutorial focuses on how to convert purchased iTunes M4P music to MP3, WAV or unprotected WMA so as to import it to Windows Movie Maker project as background music. The tutorial is composed of the following three parts:

Part 1. Something about Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker is a totally free program that comes with Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional, and Windows Vista. Below are the audio/video formats accepted by Windows Movie Maker:

Video files: .asf, .avi, .wmv
Movie files: MPEG1, .mpeg, .mpg, .mlv, .mp2
Audio files: .wav, .snd, .au, .aif, .aifc, .aiff
Windows media files: .asf, .wm, .wma, .wmv
MP3 format audio: .mp3



Part 2. Remove DRM from iTunes M4P music

The songs you purchased from iTunes store are under DRM protection. You cannot directly import them to your Windows Movie Maker project. However you can burn the protected music files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make an audio CD and then use some CD ripper software to convert the audio CD track back to MP3, WAV, WMA, etc. And iTunes allows you to burn the protected music files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make a standard audio CD:

1. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive. You'd better use CD-RW disc as it can be used for more than once.
2. Burn your playlist to make an audio CD. You cannot select the MP3 CD option since it requires the protected music files be converted to unprotected MP3 files.
3. After the audio CD is successfully burned, insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive again. Then you can use iTunes to import the music tracks on the burned disc to MP3 files.

The steps are very simple indeed. Yet, I'd like to introduce a practical application called TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter. It applies the virtual CD burning technology so that there is no need to use real disc. You can use it to move your library of M4P DRM protected music to the MP3 format that you can use on any player out there worth its salt. This is a useful tool for anyone looking to break their relationship with the iPod. The best part is that it maintains all of the music file's metadata. You can learn how to remove DRM from iTunes M4P music with TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter from this guide.



Part 3. Add the output DRM-free music to Windows Movie Maker

After you get the output DRM-free music by adopting either the disc burning/ripping method or virtual CD burning method discussed in Part 2, now you can begin to import it into your Windows Movie Maker project.

Click on File. Then click on Import. A window will appear. In the window, navigate to the sound or music file you want to add to your movie. Then double click on the file. You'll see the icon for the file in your Windows Movie Maker "collections". Click on the icon and drag it on to the timeline to the part of the video you want the sound or music to play.

After trying lots of tools I'm staying with TuneCab. It supports all commonly used formats, can convert DRM protected and unprotected audio, video, extract sound from video, remove DRM, download and convert video from YouTube etc. Easy to use all in one software!

Different ways of removing DRM protection from iTunes music on Windows and Mac OS X. You can choose any of them to unlock the DRMed iTunes music songs for various MP3/MP4 players and mobile phones rather than limiting them to iPod and iPhone. Go and have your iTunes liberated!

http://itunesm4ptomp3.wordpress.co [...] ndows-mac/

TuneCab Media Converter

* very easy to use and install

* has YouTube Ripper plugin and CD Ripper

* can convert WMA to MP3

* can convert M4P to MP3

* can convert RAX to MP3

* can convert Napster files to MP3

* can convert iTunes files to MP3

* can convert Rhapsody files to MP3

* can convert Yahoo! Music files to MP3

* converts practically ANY media file which you can play on your PC

* converted songs and movies have NO any restrictions anymore (removes DRM)

* allows to convert complete folder structures and recreates these structures on output

*selectable compression level and output format

* supports to 50 input formats

* super fast conversion, up to 50x the playback speed for audio files in batch mode

* can convert in HIFI and CD quality



http://www.tunecab.com/includes/download.php

Music files from iTunes are under DRM protection. You need a special program to help remove the protection mechanism and convert the iTunes music to MP3.

I have been using TuneClone Audio Converter for quite a long time. It does the trick! It can convert iTunes protected AAC(M4P), M4A, M4B, protected WMA, etc. to MP3, WAV, unprotected WAV with high quality at fast speed via virtual CD burning.

Below is its step by step user guide you can refer to:
http://www.tuneclone.com/guide.php

There is an in-depth review of tuneclone audio converter. The author gives an average of 4.5 out of 5 score.
So what do you think of this review? Is it fair and honest? Just take a look at it and you will get the answer.