I knew it wouldn’t take long for a way to remove personal information from iTunes DRM-free songs. Apple still haven’t explained why they are adding name and buyer information to tracks, but it’s pretty safe to assume that it’s to track who is sharing music.
According to gHacks the personal information can be removed by converting the file to another format. Not the best way as you’ll lose a bit of quality, but for most people this won’t be a problem as you’ll only notice the difference if you have a very good stereo.
It’s amazing how different MP3s sound on a good stereo, compared to say a pair of headphones, and how easy it is to pick out the differences in quality. It’s one of the reasons I’m slowly re-importing my favourite CDs in the Apple lossless format. Another reason is that I’m going to integrate my iPod properly into my car with a Dension Gateway 500 rather than using a FM transmitter, which will expose poor quality tracks more.
When I first imported my collection I went for the highest possible quality as I was banking on having enough storage to cope in the future, and I turned out to be right. Unfortunately, lossless formats didn’t exist back then so I’m having to slog through all my CDs again.
If you’re importing any music I’d advise using a lossless format – you’ll thank me in the future.
