Using I-Tune purchases in Window Media Player

Question

I use Windows Media Player the central location for maitaining my music library. None of my purchases from ITunes end up in WMP, and when I try to open them with WMP, I get an incompatable file message. I am also at a loss when it comes to loading Itune purchases into my MP3 player, which Itunes seems not to recognize

Answer 1

flightdeck4 wrote:
I use Windows Media Player the central location for maitaining my music library. None of my purchases from ITunes end up in WMP, and when I try to open them with WMP, I get an incompatable file message. I am also at a loss when it comes to loading Itune purchases into my MP3 player, which Itunes seems not to recognize
Versions of Windows (and WMP) prior to Windows7 and WMP12 do not as standard support playing AAC format files, which is the format that Apple sell tracks in from the iTunes Store.
Windows7 and WMP12 do support playing AAC files as standard.
It is possible to install free plugins and codecs for use with Windows XP, and Vista and WMP 9, 10 and 11, so they also can play AAC files (and Apple Lossless). See my article on this page http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/WMP/FileFormat.htm this allows WMP to fully support .m4a files including reading the meta-tags and putting them in the correct music section of the WMP library.
Note: The above only applies to .m4a AAC files, also known as "iTunes Plus" format tracks. If you have older tracks purchased from the iTunes Store, they may have the .m4p files extension which means they are protected using Apple's "FairPlay" DRM and cannot be played in any version of WMP.
Once you have successfully got your iTunes tracks in WMP, they will also work in Microsoft Media Center.
As per my article on the above web-page, it is also possible to get WMP to play Apple Lossless files. For Windows7 however you need to disable the built-in AAC support first. The codec pack on this page, will let you disable the built-in AAC support, and also add a replacement codec which can play both AAC and Apple Lossless. See http://shark007.net/win7codecs.html
Note: Unfortunately, due to a typical Microsoft short-sightedness, even though WMP12 in Windows7 can now itself read the meta-tags in .m4a files, and does so successfully for AAC files, and even though the file format and tag format for Apple Lossless files is *100% identical*, and even though if you install the Shark007 codecs, you have installed an Apple Lossless compatible codec, WMP12 will refuse to let you add Apple Lossless files to music section of its library (they show up under "other" media, and do play).