Using purchased Apple Music audio file in Final Cut Pro X not possible

Question

Level 1

4 points

Using purchased Apple Music audio file in Final Cut Pro X not possible

Hi everyone,

I am preparing a movie for a private celebration (so no infringing any IP rights), but I hit the problem with using audio purchased from Apple Music (more about environment below).

I do have Apple Music subscription, but to have the rights for private use I *bought* three songs. I did it arguably from iTunes Store available through Apple Music (commands "Show in iTunes Store", then purchase (click price)).

The songs I bought showed up in Music folder of media browser in FCPX. And here starts the problem:

I cannot add any of these songs to the timeline. The cursor shows "no entry" sign and the file dropped onto the timeline moves back to the media browser.

I did the following checks:

Songs produce no audible sound in FCPX browser when played. But no error message is displayed about codecs formats etc.
The files containing the songs (located in the subfolder of Music folder on the HDD) are of HLS Media kind. Having checked - it seems HTS means HTTP Live Streaming. Might it be Apple Music "native" format? But I deliberately tried to buy from iTunes...
Nevertheless, I turned back to Apple Music to convert the files. This technique used to work couple of years ago. So I selected the song, and tried File | Create AAC version. This failed with a message "Error occurred while converting the file (file name). An unknown error occurred (-50)."

Anyone any ideas how to solve this?

Just want to have a music to attach it to a FCPX movie - for private use.

My environment:

MacBook Pro
macOS Monterrey 12.2.1
Final Cut Pro X 10.6.1
Apple Music 1.2.2.40 + active subscription

Cheers,

Stan

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.2

Posted on Feb 18, 2022 4:17 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

274,458 points

Feb 18, 2022 3:54 PM in response to stan-b

See About lossless audio in Apple Music - Apple Support. You won't be able to use lossless downloads in third party projects. Turn off lossless downloads, delete you local copies, and download fresh ones again...

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

274,458 points

Feb 19, 2022 8:48 AM in response to stan-b

You should be OK with purchases, but not with Apple Music content added to the library. If you'd initial added the same tracks to iCloud Music Library from Apple Music before making the purchase then the purchased copies wouldn't necessarily override them. The store occasionally hides new purchases from your purchase history. Check for hidden purchases and unhide if present, delete any local copy with Kind=Apple Music, then you should be able to download as Kind=Purchased AAC file which you should be able to use in your FCP projects.

tt2

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Answer 3

stan-b Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 18, 2022 2:14 PM in response to turingtest2

I tried removing, downloading and running all the tests I had described before. With exactly the same results - failure.

All these files (also the one I had purchased couple of years ago) after download are HLD Media, which I suppose is the problem in further processing them.

I tried one thing in addition - while in FCPX I dragged the song from Music to the Event folder. This triggered import action with an error message claiming: "No importable files. None of the selected files or folders can be imported. Change the selection and try again.".

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Answer 4

stan-b Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 19, 2022 8:09 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks TT2. This was the answer to get M4P files instead of HLS files.

To help others: I needed to switch off Lossless in "Audio Quality" which disables lossless option in Download below. After this, deleting copies from the disk and re downloading files anew, new files were M4P instead of HLS.

Caution: it was not enough to change Download to "lossy" and keep "Audio Quality: lossless".

Now, there problem with M4P is the files are rights protected so I cannot use them in FCPX nor convert them. This time error messages were much more clear than with HLS versions.

Anyway, End of story for using Apple Music in private videos.

Thank you very much for your help. It is not convenient for my further works, but saves me a lot of searching and experimenting in trying to get Apple Music to be useable.

cheers,

Stan

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Answer 5

stan-b Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 20, 2022 2:28 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi,

you actually made me to do it once again. and thanks for that, as finally - I really got it!

I deleted the files from the library (not even the downloads).

Then, I went through Account to the "purchased" (if I remember path through the UI correctly) and downloaded it from there.

This time, in the Media folder in addition to "Apple Music" folder (where previously all the HTS files landed), a "Music" folder was created, with appropriate subfolders and *M4A* files!

Now I can use the files in FCPX. My move is brilliant ;).

thanks,

Stan

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