It’s something you may think little about in the streaming age: securing your collection of iTunes music files.
Every Apple user who bought tracks and albums from iTunes before Apple Music, has probably built up a sizable music collection over the past few years. Non-streaming we are talking about then. Moreover, Apple also still offers albums and tracks for download through the iTunes Store mentioned above. Nevertheless, there is a chance that Apple will one day discontinue these individual sales. Whether and for how long the once-purchased single tracks will then be available? We also see that due to changing licensing agreements, some (compilation) albums are far from complete downloads anymore. Reasons enough to download and secure all your purchases.
No DRM
The nice thing about tracks purchased from the Apple iTunes Store is that they are in no way protected by a nasty DRM method of any kind. The .m4a file format used is an AAC file that can be played on any self-respecting music player (or software). While Apple has opted for compression, it has done so at the highest quality available for AAC. So they married a good sound quality with relatively limited file sizes. Ideal for in the car or on the road on a portable music player. Practical too: should you ever leave the Apple ecosystem you can simply take the music with you.
Downloading and listening
To download all your ever purchased tracks, use the iTunes software for Windows or Music for Mac. Once logged in with your Apple account you download everything you want to keep. The default download folder is listed in the settings of the software. When desired, this folder can also be changed (preferably do so before any download action), for example to a shared folder on a NAS. Once you have downloaded all the tracks, they can also be seamlessly copied to a shared music folder or your streamer.