I really hate this stinking DRM protection. It does not allow for me to transfer my music files to a portable audio device without paying more monthly fees. Besides, I don't use my computer to listen to music anyways, just the portable mp3/wma player. What is the best method to remove DRM protection from WMA files so I can use them on my mp3/wma player? I've looked for some ways to do this online, but most of the methods were outdated or confusing.

Thanks.

There's a tool out there to do this I believe it's called drm2wmv or something you can find more about it at the forums at doom9.org just do a search in the forums there and you should find what you're looking for. I think the one catch is that you can't use the latest version of Windows Media player, it needs either wmp9 or an early version of 10

hope that helps

Darn my WMP was updated to the latest version so those tools won't work for me. Is it possible to use Audacity to record the speaker output of my sound card as MP3 with decent quality?

If ur on a mac, you can use Audio Hijack Pro. It works wonders. Captures audio from any software or system Audio. Its on versiontracker. DRM is actually illegal anyway. Disables your ability to practice fair use in your case.

You can uninstall media player 10 it's somewhere in the add remove windows components, and then download windows media player 9, or an early version of 10 either version 10.00.00.3646 or earlier. I think there's a link to a cab file of this version somewhere on the doom9 forum.

The suggestions above are good, but you are also right in that you can use Audacity to record what you're playing without losing much in quality. Audacity (a free audio editor, for those who don't know) has a lot of functionality and one feature is its ability to record what the sound card is playing directly to another audio file. It's useful for grabbing streaming audio, audio from games and other things as well as being a pretty good audio editor. Typically you don't need to go plugging cables into the sound card, just select 'stereo mixer' for your recording source in the normal Windows Volume Control, then select the appropriate sound card I/O in Audacity. It can be a tad tricky with some integrated sound to work out what you're looking for but it almost always works. Audacity has a forum full of useful advice too.

As for loss of quality - that is of course subjective, but when you are starting with compressed audio and you are going to play it through an MP3 player which has, ahem, dubious quality anyway, chances are you won't notice you lost anything. If you're going to play it through your $$$ home stereo, you might just notice something but there again you might not. Take your pick - protected audio or unprotected audio which might just be slightly lower quality but you will be hard pressed to tell.

DRM Remover-professional drm video removal
DRM Video Removal is currently the best software program to quickly and perfectly remove drm legally from music file like WMA, M4V, MP4, WMV, MP3, AAC, etc.

Burn as an Audio CD on a CD-RW, then delete the original files and reimport. This strips DRM. Nero can make Audi CD's.

Daniusoft Digital Media Converter Pro is a perfect video converter. It is not only a video converter but also a DRM Protected video converter. Most important, its price is really reasonable.
Look at its supported format:
Input format:
DRM audio and DRM video (WMA/WMV/M4A/M4B/M4P/M4V/ASF)
Common audio and video formats: MP4, MPG, MPEG, 3GP, RM, RMVB, DAT, MOV, FLV, VOB, MP3, WAV, M4A, WMA
High-definition video: M2TS, TP, TRP, TS, AVI
Output format: Audio: MP3, M4A, AC3, AAC, WMA, WAV, OGG, and APE.
Video: MP4, FLV, AVI, WMV, ASF, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, MPG, VOB.
It is also very easy to use:
Stpe 1:Download and install the DRM Removal Software. Run the software and click "Add…" button to load WMA or M4A, M4B, AAC, WMV, M4P, M4V, ASF files.
Step 2: Choose output formats. If you want to convert protected audio files, please select "Convert audio to" list; If you want to convert protected video files, please select "Convert video to" list.
Stpe 3: You can click "Settings" button to custom preference for output files, and Click "Settings" button bellow "Convert video to" list for protected video files.