How do I transfer iTunes purchases to another apple ID (Account)

so I can de-authorize her computer from my account

I strongly object to the "No problem just burn a CD" thing.

It actually IS a problem. This does have to do with digital music, conversion, compression and stuff like that. It's actually pretty similar to the way pictures are stored.

Imagine a picture with a digital watermark you want to get rid off. What you could do is print the picture and then scan it again. Hrrrr, you say, that would trash the quality. True, so why does someone recommend burning a CD?

Let's look at how these things work. The iTunes songs are digital and compressed. Compression works in a way which eliminates sounds the human ear would not be able to hear anyway because other sounds in the track are louder, or just dominate the whole thing. It's a very intelligent method, but it's not lossless. Meaning, you will lose information.

Now, by definition the music on a CD is not compressed. That's why you will get up to like 13 or 14 tracks of normal music onto a CD, but about 10 times as much in files. So, you will create an Audio CD from the music you have, which means the compressed audio on your computer will be transcoded into something uncompressed. Of course this uncompressed music does not contain more information than the compressed file.

So the next step is, you take the CD and convert it to MP3. Meaning, you compress an already compressed file, because the algorhythms on the computer think that the music is not compressed. What happens is that you get a file on the computer which is audibly worse than the original file you had. Which, I guess, is something you do not want.

This does not take into account the number of CDs you will have to burn to transfer let's say 10,000 songs. That would be.... right. 1,000 CDs... quite a lot.

Hmmmm. I still think Apple has to do something about this...

Ingo, with all due respect... you have ABSOLUTELY no clue what you're talking about.

1. CD Audio IS certainly compressed, just not at a level that is detectable to the human ear. It's a digital signal that is limited to 44,100 samples per second, which is what makes analog superior for recording orchestral pieces where the sound is extremely complex, (although the CD can reach 0db where an analog recording cannot.)
2. iTunes, by default rips music using LOSSLESS compression (m4a files using proprietary Apple lossless encoder.) Unless you changed it in the prefs, ripped music will probably be lossless compression, and any music purchased from iTunes store will also be in m4a, lossless compression format (for the purpose of DRM).

Kuchaluu (original poster) Download an audio file conversion tool to one of your machines that is actually authorized to playback the files, and convert them to another file format that doesn't include DRM (Digital Rights Management) such as MP3, and transfer them using an external hard drive, then import them into iTunes library on new machine (or whatever other media file organizer you like). I really like dbPowerAmp for this but it might be for windows only.

With regard to other content... yeah, pain in the arse, can't change the ownership through any method I know of, (yet).

CD Audio IS certainly compressed, just not at a level that is detectable to the human ear. It's a digital signal that is limited to 44,100 samples per second, which is what makes analog superior for recording orchestral pieces where the sound is extremely complex, (although the CD can reach 0db where an analog recording cannot.)

Sorry, but it is you who are wrong. Frequency limitation does not imply compression. The frequency response of a standard audio CD CD is limited by the number of samples the digital converter takes in a given second, which for those CDs that follow the Red Book standard is 44.1 kilohertz. Data is stored using pulse-code modulation in such CDs; no data compression techniques are used.

iTunes, by default rips music using LOSSLESS compression (m4a files using proprietary Apple lossless encoder.) Unless you changed it in the prefs, ripped music will probably be lossless compression, and any music purchased from iTunes store will also be in m4a, lossless compression format (for the purpose of DRM).

That's also wrong. iTunes by default imports a track and compresses using the AAC compression format at 256 kilobits per second. Apple Lossless is an available choice when ripping CDs, but it is not the default in iTunes. Nor is any track available from the iTunes Store in a lossless format; all music from the iTunes Store is 256kbps AAC.

Not meaning to flame, but you really need to check your facts before you tell someone they have no clue what they're talking about.

Regards.

Thanks Dave. There is also another problem here: Converting your DRM protected music into a format that does not have DRM is illegal. Well, ok, there is a point here some parties are discussing, like is it really illegal if you do it for personal use only. But, according to the agreements you "sign" by using the Apple store, it is.

One more thing to keep in mind: Apple lossless is, in fact lossless, like a zip compression, for example. But it is also quite a bit larger than an AAC or MP3 compressed file. I don't have the size in my head, but you would definitely end up with a much larger library than now.

As a little addendum: The CD was introduced in the early 1980s. Back then, if we can agree to say this, no form of audio compression producing acceptable results was available to the wide public (please read this sentence again if you are unsure what I am saying).

Apart from that, T. Knew, you state that analog recording techniques are superior to the CD when recording orchestral pieces. This is something you simply cannot say, because, if you are a true HiFi guy, you know that this is a question of taste. A vinyl LP certainly sounds different than a CD, but then again if you compare a Martin Logan electrostatic speaker to a B&W, you will see that they sound very different from each other, too, the one being more analytic, the other one being warmer.

What I am saying is that there are a lot of factors which change the way music is played and perceived, but this would take this discussion totally off track. I just wanted to show you that you are not talking to someone who doesn't have a clue, but to someone who knows at least a bit about music, recording and playback.

Getting back to the topic: I still think Apple has to find a way to clear this up 🙂

It actually was cleared up a couple of years ago, Ingo, when Apple dropped DRM from all music tracks in the iTunes Store and offered upgrades for most tracks purchased prior to that. You jumped into a thread that, until you posted, had last been posted to over two years ago, so this point, at least for the original poster, is long since moot.

Regards.

Dave,

maybe my English isn't good enough, but I just scanned the iTunes legal agreement, and this is what I found:

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(ii) You shall be authorized to use iTunes Products on five iTunes-authorized devices at any time, except for Content Rentals (see below).

(iii) You shall be able to store iTunes Products from up to five different Accounts at a time on compatible devices, provided that each iPhone may sync ringtone iTunes Products with only a single iTunes-authorized device at a time, and syncing an iPhone with a different iTunes-authorized device will cause ringtone iTunes Products stored on that iPhone to be erased.

(iv) You shall be authorized to burn an audio playlist up to seven times.

(v) You shall not be entitled to burn video iTunes Products or ringtone iTunes Products.

(vi) iTunes Plus Products do not contain security technology that limits your usage of such products, and Usage Rules (ii) – (v) do not apply to iTunes Plus Products. You may copy, store, and burn iTunes Plus Products as reasonably necessary for personal, noncommercial use.

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From my understanding this tells me that there are limitations to iTunes products, i. e. songs that you purchased, if they are not iTunes Plus songs. But as I said, I am not 100% certain, this Legalese stuff is really kinda hard to understand. But I still think that if you bought a DRM protected song on iTunes (meaning a non-Plus title), removing the protection is illegal!

And, sorry to say that, Dave, but in my opinion you are wrong by saying "when Apple dropped DRM from...". They did not do that. They introduced iTunes Plus, which is not DRM protected, but the old, non-Plus stuff, still is DRM protected, imo...

And I apologize for the old post. I did not see that. Perhaps we should just let it rest then....

What I meant by what I posted is that as of over two years ago, Apple stopped selling music tracks with DRM, and Apple offered upgrades from the DRM versions for as many tracks as they could. So Apple addressed the situation as much as was possible.

Since the original poster of this thread is long gone, we probably should indeed let this thread lapse back into slumber.

Regards.