Playing DRM protected m4p(AAC) Apple iTunes files
on a computer not authorized with iTunes
About VLC media player
VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a free media player for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, BeOS ...
It supports various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
Playing iTunes DRM protected files with VLC
VLC is able to play M4P files (DRM protected AAC files used by Apple iTunes), provided that you have the user key(s).
User key directories
Windows:
C:\Documents and Settings\$USERNAME\Application Data\drms
GNU/Linux, MacOS X:
~/.drms
Generating user key file(s) on a computer which has been authorized using iTunes
Play an M4P file with VLC under Windows on a computer which has been authorized using iTunes (That means you have to play at least one iTunes Music Store file using iTunes before attempting this hack).
Generating user key file(s) using an authorized iPod
Play a M4P file with VLC using an authorized iPod.
IPOD and IPODID are environment variables.
IPOD=/Volumes/IPOD vlc file.m4p
If you use GNU/Linux and don't have libsysfs installed or your VLC was compiled without support for libsysfs, you will need to specify the iPod ID manually:
IPOD=/mnt/ipod IPODID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX vlc file.m4p
Use 'dmesg | grep ieee1394 | grep GUID' to determine your iPod ID under GNU/Linux.
Final notes
Once you have successfully generated the user key file(s), you are no longer dependent on Apple or iTunes in order to play your M4P files.
Simply copy your M4P files and your user key directory to your new computer. It does not matter that your new computer has not been authorized with iTunes. VLC will be able to play your M4P files provided that you have the user key(s).
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