One feature of the iPod is that you can play purchased music stored on your iPod on someone else’s computer. Of course, you can’t save the music on that computer without “authorizing” the machine to play it, which is good since it stops illegal pirating of purchased FairPlay-protected music.

But what if someone gives you a less-expensive MP3 player? Some people could use software like Audio Hijack to re-record purchased iTunes Store songs from protected AAC files to regular MP3s, then load them to the non-iPod player.

Now that the iTunes Store is going DRM-free, will there be an update to iTunes to let you convert purchased songs to another audio format? And will that format be unprotected, so you can play your purchases on as many computers as you want, without authorizing?

“Give Peace a Chance” was purchased from iTunes Plus as an AAC file

but iTunes 8.0.2 converted it to a standard, unprotected MP3 file for us.

Good question. We tested this out before the iTunes Store went DRM-free for all its music, and found that FairPlay-protected AAC files (which end with the .m4p extension) can’t be converted to another format, as you’ve stated.

But happily, tracks we purchased from iTunes Plus (which have the .m4a extension, the same as any unprotected AAC files you ripped yourself from CDs) can be converted to MP3—or Apple Lossless, AIFF, or WAV, which are the other formats iTunes can use.

First go to iTunes > Preferences > General, and click the button for Import Settings. In that dialog, select MP3 Encoder under the Import Using drop-down and click OK. Then click OK to exit the preferences. Select the iTunes Plus track in your library, then go to Advanced > Create MP3 Version. iTunes will create a second version of your song as a regular MP3. Then just right-click that file in your library and choose Show In Finder if you want to find it on your hard drive and add it to another MP3 player, attach it to  an email, put it on a thumb drive, or whatever you please.