How to Share Apple Music with My MP3 Player for Personal Playback While Swimming

Yes Protected songs can only be played through authoized software on supported devices, however, iTunes store purchases aren't actually protected in anyway now and have not been for over 15 years now, so should have no issue being copied over to the MP3 player and played there.

The limitation may arise with tracks from the Apple Music subscription service, those are protected as per the Music studios and right holders requests to reduce piracy as you can access the Apple Music subscription service catalog and download thousands of songs for just $9.99. If they could simply be transfered and played elsewhere what would stop anyone from copying them and selling them out illegally?

Make sure the tracks you are trying to copy over are not from the Apple Music subscription service.

If you still have any protected tracks that were downloaded over 15 years ago, you can convert those to unprotected versions.

click here ➜ Removing DRM protection from purchased AA… - Apple Community

jmzmac wrote:

All workable options, but all are workarounds to what used to a very straightforward, super simple, minimalist option, i.e., using my then-supported completely unrestricted iPod Shuffle. It worked well for a number of years, so I can't complain, but after switching to bone induction style listening via the Shokz SwimPro, it would be a major downgrade to go back to in-the-ear listening, both in terms of sound quality and comfort. Looks like I'll just have to learn to deal with a more limited library and/or purchase some of the restricted songs that I've added to me swim playlist over the years.

The iPod Shuffle never supported playing Apple Music subscription songs. No iPods, except the iPod touch, ever did. The iPod touch ran iOS and was basically like an iPhone minus the cellular voice/text/data stuff, or the Wi-Fi-only versions of the iPad. All of the other iPods – even the ones with screens which mimicked some of the "look and feel" of other Apple products - ran their own stripped-down, custom-purpose operating systems, and were completely dependent upon assistance from a computer (as none could connect to the Internet).

FYI, the iTunes Store sold songs in 128 Kbps DRMed AAC format between its launch in 2003, and the early part of 2009. The Apple Music subscription service appeared much later.

Apple – Newsroom (June 8, 2015) – Introducing Apple Music — All The Ways You Love Music. All in One Place.

"*Apple Music is available on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC starting June 30. Apple Music will be coming to Apple TV and Android phones this fall."

You could use an iPhone or even a still functional iPod Shuffle if you wanted to in a water proof case and sync it with itunes though.

Tracks and albums from the Apple Music subscription service still would not work on an ipod shuffle though.

And again, purchased tracks from iTunes have not been proected for a long time now and can be played anywhere, so your issue should not even be a thing if you just want to play iTunes purchases and songs ripped from a CD on a non-Apple MP3 payer.

jmzmac wrote:

Again, thank you for the clarification, but a new problem has arisen that you make know how to address. When I removed downloaded music and re-installed, it appears that all of my Matched ACC audio files have been converted to the HLS format, which I heard cannot be transferred / played on an MP3 device. Was reading that you can change the download format to ACC in Music, Settings, Playback, but the instructions say to uncheck Enable Lossless Audio and then select the ACC format for Download, but if I uncheck Enable Lossless Audio, the Streaming and Download format options get greyed out and are not selectable.

Are you, by any chance, using "Sync Library" with an Apple Music subscription? I ask because I wasn't aware of Apple offering lossless formats through the iTunes Store. Only

• 128 Kbps DRMed AAC – from 2003 through early 2009
• 256 Kbps non-DRMed AAC – since then

(assuming that you're talking about songs, not about music videos)

I have an Apple Music subscription, but keep "Sync Library" turned off – by choice. Apple Music does not allow making offline listening copies when "Sync Library" is off – but I'm pretty sure it won't be performing any wrong "matching" or replacing any of my purchased songs with DRMed songs, either.

So I haven't had to deal with the question of under what conditions a conversion to HLS format – like the one you describe – might happen.

Obviously, I am totally out of my depth here, and so I appreciate you hanging in here with me. Ok, I finally took the time to add a "Kind" column to my song list and sorted through it and found only 55 HLS files on a library totaling over 10,000 songs from CDs and music purchased over the years.

Here's a breakdown by file type of my Songs folder: AAC audio (8,155); Matched AAC audio (104); MPEG audio (2,029)*; Purchased AAC audio (1,084); TOTAL (11,372) ... and it appears as though I can copy these / download to mp3 player.

However, these file types I cannot: Apple Music AAC audio (1,542); HLS media (55); MPEG-4 audio (67); and Protected AAC audio (52).

Now that I have that worked out, I'm trying to determine how best to manage my ever evolving playlist for swimming, as I swim approximately 4 hours per week and like to mix up my listenings. Maybe I should just dump everything that's not mp3 compatible and just have my own (owned) music downloaded. Still working through it.

I understand the situation. My frustration is that Apple no longer has a its own device, e.g., the iPod Shuffle, nor does Apple authorize any other third party devices that I am aware of, that allows the Music app or some other form of authorization on a device that can be used for swimming or other activities where say a Bluetooth connection is not viable.

Appreciate your input. All workable options, but all are workarounds to what used to a very straightforward, super simple, minimalist option, i.e., using my then-supported completely unrestricted iPod Shuffle. It worked well for a number of years, so I can't complain, but after switching to bone induction style listening via the Shokz SwimPro, it would be a major downgrade to go back to in-the-ear listening, both in terms of sound quality and comfort. Looks like I'll just have to learn to deal with a more limited library and/or purchase some of the restricted songs that I've added to me swim playlist over the years. Thank you again for your feedback. Cheers!

I stand corrected on the iPod Shuffle's ability to accommodate music from Apple's subscription service. I have thousands of purchased songs / songs that I loaded from CDs back in the mid-late 2000s that are so intertwined with Apple music, that I am completely at a loss.

Again, thank you for the clarification, but a new problem has arisen that you make know how to address. When I removed downloaded music and re-installed, it appears that all of my Matched ACC audio files have been converted to the HLS format, which I heard cannot be transferred / played on an MP3 device. Was reading that you can change the download format to ACC in Music, Settings, Playback, but the instructions say to uncheck Enable Lossless Audio and then select the ACC format for Download, but if I uncheck Enable Lossless Audio, the Streaming and Download format options get greyed out and are not selectable.

HLS is a streaming format. Downloads could not possibly be in HLS.

How did you determine your new files are in HLS format exaclty?

Did you actually download the files instead of just attempting to play them?