A common problem created by both Apple and Microsoft for consumers is getting music to work across the iTunes and Windows Media Player applications. If you are a regular user of the iTunes program and want to export music to play in Windows Media Player, you will have to convert iTunes to Windows Media Player format or a common format that can be used on both players. One of the more popular options for this type of conversion is MP3. If you have purchased or uploaded iTunes songs within the past few years, then they are loaded without DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) and can be directly converted. If the music was purchased before 2009, then it likely has DRM embedded in the music and must be ripped to CD first before conversion to MP3.

Convert iTunes to Windows Media Player (Without DRM)

Step 1 – Open the  iTunes music player by double clicking the program icon on your computer’s desktop or selecting from the “Program Files” sub-menu of the Windows Start menu.

Step 2– Select the “Edit,” “Preferences,” and “General” menu tabs.

Step 3 – Select the “Import Settings” menu option followed by changing the “Import Using” menu option to “MP3 Encoder.”

Step 4– Choose the “Ok” menu button and then open the iTunes music library in “List View.”

Step 5 – Highlight the music to convert to MP3 by holding the “CTRL” key while individually clicking on tracks or press the “Shift” key and click on the last song in the library.

Step 6 – Select the “Advanced” menu button followed by choosing the “Create MP3 Version” menu choice.

Step 7 – iTunes will being converting the music. For large libraries, this can take significant time and must be completed before proceeding to load the music in Windows Media Player.

Step 8 – After the conversion is complete, launch Windows Media Player on your computer.

Step 9 – Select the “File” and “Add to Library” menu options or press the “F3” key.

Step 10 – Choose the “Ok” menu button and Windows Media Player will begin searching for music on your computer that is in compatible formats to include the music you converted to MP3 from iTunes.

Step 11– After Windows Media Player has finished searching the computer; select the MP3 tracks to load into the application to complete the conversion from iTunes to Windows Media Player.

Convert iTunes to Windows Media Player (With DRM)

If you have music loaded in the iTunes media player that was bought, purchased, or uploaded prior to 2009, there is a strong possibility that it has DRM protection embedded in the files. If this is the case, iTunes will display an error when trying to convert the music directly to MP3 or other music formats.

Step 1 – Launch the iTunes media player.

Step 2 – Choose the “Preferences” menu option and then click the “Burning” or equivalent button in iTunes.

Step 3 – Select “Audio CD” as the format for burning and “CD.” Then, select a playlist to burn to CD to then convert to MP3 that can be loaded in Windows Media Player.

Step 4 – Select the “Burn Disc” menu option and insert a blank CD-R/W or CD-R into the computer’s CD/DVD-R drive.
Step 5 – Choose the “Burn Disc” menu option to start ripping the music from iTunes to the CD.

Step 6 – After the burn completes, close the CD/DVD if it has opened post-burn. Then, open the disc in the iTunes application.

Step 7 – Right click individual tracks and select the “Convert Selection to MP3” menu option (or equivalent based on version of iTunes on your computer. After conversion to MP3 is complete, follow steps 8 through 11 above to finish loading the iTunes music into Windows Media Player.