How to Convert Apple Music to MP3 (5 Proven Methods in 2025)

Apple Music offers a fantastic streaming experience. However, converting those songs to MP3 can be tricky due to digital rights management (DRM) protection. Whether you want to play tracks on non-Apple devices, preserve your library offline, or just keep a personal archive, this guide will walk you through the best methods to convert Apple Music to MP3 in 2025. It covers 5 practical solutions: official methods, third-party tools, and even free options.

The Best Ways to Convert Apple Music to MP3: A Quick Summary

• The Native Methods: iTunes/Apple Music App
  — A cumbersome, old-school method involving burning songs to a CD and re-importing them. It’s the most limited option but uses Apple’s own software.
• Best Overall Methods: TunesKit Audio Capture/AudFree Apple Music Converter
  — Dedicated tools that offer the best balance of speed, audio quality, and ease of use. It automatically captures songs with all metadata intact.
• Free Methods: Audacity/Apowersoft Online Audio Recorder
  — Powerful, free audio editors that can record any audio playing on your computer. It requires more manual work but costs nothing.

Methods	DRM Removal	Output Quality	Batch Support	Tags Preserved	Speed	Ease of Use	Cost
1️⃣ iTunes	No	Lossy	Yes	Yes	Very Slow	Difficult	Free
2️⃣ TunesKit	Yes	Lossless	Yes	Yes	Fast	Very Easy	Faid, with a free trial
3️⃣ AudFree	Yes	Very High	Yes	Yes	Fast	Very Easy	Faid, with a free trial
4️⃣ Audacity	Yes	Variable	No	No	Slow	Moderate	Free
5️⃣ Apowersoft	Partial	Medium	No	No	Slow	Easy	Free/Limited

Method 1. The Official Methods - Using iTunes/Apple Music App

Apple allows you to convert tracks you’ve bought via the iTunes Store to MP3 using its built-in iTunes app (Windows) or Apple Music app (macOS).

Option 1. Convert Apple Music to MP3 for Free via iTunes (for Windows)

Instead of downloading your favorite songs from Apple Music, you can also purchase these songs directly on iTunes. The vast majority of songs purchased through iTunes are not DRM-protected, and they are also encoded in AAC format but have the file extension .m4a. These songs can be converted to MP3 for free directly through iTunes and listened to on the Apple Music app and other players. Here is how to convert purchased music files to MP3.

Step 1: Launch iTunes on your computer, go to Edit > Preferences > General > Import Settings, and click on the drop-down menu Import Using to select MP3 Encoder.

Step 2: Drag and drop the purchased music to the iTunes home screen. Tap the music and go to File > Convert and click on Create MP3 Version.

Option 2. Convert Apple Music to MP3 for Free via Apple Music (for macOS 10.15 or later)

Starting from Mac Catalina, iTunes has been upgraded and subdivided into different programs, one of which is the new Apple Music. At this time, Apple Music also has the ability to convert music to MP3 format for free. But like iTunes, Apple Music can only convert purchased DRM-free songs. You can refer to the steps below to convert songs to MP3 format via Apple Music.

Step 1: Open Apple Music on your Mac Catalina. Go to Music > Preferences > Files > Import Settings > Import Using, and choose MP3.

Step 2: Press and hold the Option key and go to File > Convert > Convert to [import preference], then choose the music you want to convert.

Method 2. Convert Apple Music to MP3 via TunesKit Apple Music Converter

This is the best and fastest way to convert Apple Music files to MP3, which is to record songs from Apple Music in MP3 format. In this situation, the TunesKit Audio Capture is what you need.

Unlike other common audio recording tools, TunesKit Audio Capture is an excellent streaming music recording software to record Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, etc., to MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, M4A, and M4B without losing audio quality. Also, you can customize recorded Apple Music by merging, trimming, and splitting audio files with its built-in audio editor. Let's see how to record and convert Apple Music to MP3 via TunesKit Audio Capture.

Step 1: Download and launch TunesKit Audio Capture on your computer, and you will see a list of installed programs on the home interface, like iTunes, Google Chrome, Safari, etc. You can access the Apple Music website from this screen or click on the "+" button to add the Apple Music desktop app.

Step 2: To convert Apple Music to MP3, you should preset the output format to MP3 by tapping the Format button at the bottom right. Here you can also change other audio parameters, like codec, channel, sample rate, and bit rate.

Step 3: On the main interface of TunesKit Audio Capture, you can tap a web browser to access the Apple Music website or open the Apple Music app. Simply play the song you want to convert to MP3 on Apple Music, and TuensKit will automatically capture it immediately. Click on Stop when you finish the recording.

Step 4: This step is optional. You can click the Edit icon at the rear of each Apple Music track, and a new window will pop up, where you can trim or split the Apple Music song and edit the ID3 tags.

Step 5: When all is done, click on the Save button to convert the recorded Apple Music songs to MP3 format. You can find them in the History list and locate the local folder by clicking on the Search icon at each track in the History list.

Method 3. Convert Apple Music to MP3 via AudFree Apple Music Converter

Generally speaking, it's not an easy task to remove DRM restrictions from Apple Music streaming audio files. In addition to recording songs from Apple Music and converting them to MP3 DRM-free files, is there any other way to convert DRM-protected Apple Music to MP3 losslessly?

The answer is yes. You can turn up to a professional third-party Apple Music DRM removal tool, called AudFree Apple Music Converter. Thanks to advanced DRM decryption technology, this smart Apple Music converter will help you bypass DRM copyright protection from not only Apple Music M4P, but only iTunes M4P songs and M4A, M4A audiobooks, as well as Audible AA/AAX audiobooks to commonly used MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, M4B, AAC, and more.

Please refer to the following detailed guide to convert Apple Music M4P to MP3 using AudFree Apple Music to MP3 Converter.

Step 1: Click the "+ music" icon > "Add to list" to import music files AudFree Audio Converter.

Step 2: Tap the Format button to set MP3 as the output format. You can choose the destination folder to save converted DRM-free Apple Music files. And this converter also provides AAC, M4A, FLAC, and WAV as the output format.

Step 3: Next, click on the Convert button at the bottom right of the main screen. The conversion time depends on how many Apple Music songs you have selected. After that, you are able to transfer DRM-free Apple Music to other MP3 players or devices as you like.

Method 4. Record Apple Music to MP3 for Free via Audacity

Audacity is also an alternative way you should try to convert Apple Music to MP3 for free. This free open-source audio recording software enables you to effortlessly record Apple Music songs and convert them to MP3 so you can get any of your favorite DRM-free Apple Music songs and play them on any device you want. Besides, it has not only basic audio editing tools but also advanced tools like sound effects and plug-ins.

But you should know that it can't auto-detect your target audio source, which means that if you start recording a song in Apple Music, other noises that pop up will be recorded alongside it. Therefore, be sure to exit any program where sound may occur before starting Audacity to record and convert Apple music to MP3.

Now let's learn how to record and convert Apple Music to MP3 for free via Audacity

Step 1: Launch Audacity on your computer. Click on the Audio Setup option next to the recording bar to select your preferred Host, Playback Device, Recording Device, and others. Or you can leave them to the default settings.

Step 2: Open the Apple Music app or its web player, click on the red Record button and turn to Apple Music to play your desired music. Hit the yellow Stop button to finish the recording when the music ends.

Step 3: The recorded Apple Music song will display as a waveform track in the main interface. Now you're able to edit it. To convert to an MP3 file, tap File > Export > Export to MP3. Then follow the on-screen prompts to save the Apple Music MP3 file to the local folder.

Method 5. Record Apple Music to MP3 for Free via Apowersoft Online Audio Recorder

There are lightweight web-based solutions like Apowersoft Free Online Audio Recorder. It can help you quickly record Apple music songs with various formats including MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, etc. It has concise interface and easy for even beginners. However, you may suffer audio quality loss and DRM migh block playback in some cases. It doesn't offer tag editing or batch support. Apowersoft Free Online Audio Recorder is convenient but less powerful than desktop apps. The following are qucik steps.

Step 1: Open a browser and visit the official website of Apowersoft Online Audio Recorder.

Step 2: Click the "Start Recording" button to enable the launcher to operate. Then choose the "System sound" in the pop-up audio source window.

Step 3:Click the red "Start" button and then click to play the Apple Music song. Press the "Stop" to complete recording when the playback is finished.

Step 4:Now you can go to the "Recording list" and check the "Open folder" to find the recorded songs in the output folder. They're all in MP3 format now. Then you're able to transfer them to your devices and enjoy Apple music at any time.

FAQs Related to Apple Music to MP3

Now let’s check some frequently asked questions about converting Apple Music to MP3.

Summary

After converting your Apple Music songs to MP3, you can now transfer and listen to them on any MP3-enabled device without worrying about your Apple Music subscription expiring. Among the tools above, we still highly recommend TunesKit Audio Capture and AudFree Audio Converter, both of which are available to acquire Apple Music songs to MP3 or other common audio format files losslessly in different ways.

By the way, TunesKit Audio Capture is still your on-top solution if you want to get high-quality songs from other music streaming services, like Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and more.