Once you do that you can upload them to Amazon Prime, copy them to your Android tablet, etc. Since all the music in Match is iTunes Plus (DRM free) you can convert your m4p files to m4a by simply forcing a re-download of the files. And you don’t even need to keep local copies of the files on your Mac if you don’t want to. You no longer have to sync the music files from your Mac to your phone. Once the scanning/uploading is complete your music is available to you on any iOS device. For those that don’t match, iTunes uploads them to your own private corner of the cloud. Most of your music files Apple already has sitting on their servers (“in the cloud”). iTunes Match scans your iTunes music library. iTunes MatchĪpple introduced iTunes Match in early 2013.

You can then see how many you have and if it is worth the $25 to convert them. One easy way to do that is to create a smart playlist where Kind contains “Protected AAC audio file”. Fortunately there is still a way - it’s just a little indirect and will cost you $25.īefore doing this process you should check your iTunes library and see how many protected music files you have. There was a period of time where you could upgrade protected files to iTunes Plus for a fee. The more recent stuff will - but not most stuff purchased before 2009.īottom line is: you do not want any DRM protected music in your music library. Boo! And if I do get that Fire Tablet, those protected iTunes files won’t play. With Amazon Prime I can upload my purchased iTunes music - yeah! - but NOT if it is Protected AAC. We use Amazon Prime music, we have an Amazon Fire TV Stick and Echo, and I’m considering getting an Amazon Fire tablet. In the last year or so I’ve started using the Amazon ecosystem more and more. Since we were an early iTunes adopter our iTunes library had a lot of protected files. By 2009 Apple stopped selling DRM encumbered music and all was iTunes Plus.

These files are labeled as Purchased AAC audio file and have a file suffix of m4a and can be played on (most) any device. Apple introduced iTunes Plus in 2007 - a DRM free, higher quality format. These music files are protected with Digital Rights Management (DRM) and are labeled in iTunes as Protected AAC audio file and have a file suffix of m4p.

Tell me why im waiting m4a