Reader Steve Good would like a little more goodness from the videos he purchased from the iTunes Music Store. He writes:
I bought a music video from the iTunes Music Store. How can I play the audio on my iPod nano? Doesn’t buying a music video entitle me to enjoy the music {track} apart from the video?
Yes and no. Buying the music video entitles you to enjoy it on a compatible device, such as a Mac or PC running a recent version of iTunes. However, the iPod nano is not a compatible device for video files—as you’ve learned, your nano rejects the file if you try to load it onto the iPod.
You can open non-protected videos with a compatible player/editor such as QuickTime Pro and extract and export the audio track. Regrettably, videos sold by the iTMS are protected in such a way that you can’t do this.
Hope isn’t lost, however. One immutable rule of media states, “That which can be played can be captured.” And your purchased videos are no exception.
Download a copy of Ambrosia Software’s $19 WireTap Pro or Rogue Amoeba’s $16 Audio Hijack. Each of these utilities allows you to capture the audio your Mac is playing. Just fire up one or the other, begin capturing, and then start playing the music video. When the video is complete, stop recording and do what you will with the resulting audio file.
You can use WireTap Pro for free to record AIFF files with the controller (if you use any of the program’s other options, such as scheduling, a voiceover will appear on your recording). Currently WireTap Pro is not compatible with Intel Macs, but a Universal edition should appear soon.
Audio Hijack is available as a Universal application. A fully-functioning demo is available that will overlay noise on all recordings longer than 10 minutes.