Get Music Off Your iPod
iPods are nice… unless you want to get your music off of one. In an effort to appease the zombie lords of major media corporations, Apple attempted to hide your music files from you. You want to back up your music? Piracy! You have two computers? Piracy! You want to give a song to your mom? Mega Piracy!!!
Fortunately this effort to hide your own music from you is not just delusional — it’s pointless. Here’s how to get your music off your iPod so you can have more fun at Swap Meet
Tutorials
- Get music off an iPod – Wired HowTo Wiki. Includes apps and command line techniques
- How to get music off an iPod – by Engadget
- Moving music off the iPod – at Macworld
- How to moves songs off your iPod (Windows) – at mp3Buzz
- Copy Music Off Your iPod – at Methodshop
Software
- Senuti – unlock iPods with an iTunes style interface. Mac. Recommended
- Floola – manage iPods and Motorola phones. Free. Win / Mac / Linux Recommended
- iPodDisk – move music on iPod like any other disk. Mac.
- iLinkPod – reveal “hidden” iPod files. Mac.
- SharePod – mange music and videos. Free. Windows. (requires .NET)
- EphPod – unlock iPods. Windows
- ml_iPod – iPod Winamp plugin. Windows.
- iPodSoft – iPod tools for Windows. Shareware (Free-$15)
Regarding the ITMS
The iTunes Music Store uses digital rights management (DRM) to cripple what you can do with your purchase. Files sold without DRM contain personally identifying tracking data. The best policy is to carefully avoid all broken or spyware infected music. But if you must deal with defective ITMS music files:
- Circumventing_Fairplay – at Wikipedia
- Hymn Project – free your iTunes Music Store purchases from their DRM restrictions with no loss of sound quality.
- myFairTunes – strip FairPlay DRM off batches of files (for Windows with .Net)
More Info
- Fair Use and DRM – the EFF explaining what “fair” actually means
- FairPlay cracked – Digital Rights Management is not just obnoxious — it’s useless!
For more information about DRM, Fair Use and karaoke, see the Swap Meet project page