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protected and unavailable songs in iMovie - purchased after 2009

I have today (9th June 2020) just downloaded 3 songs in iTunes, gone into iMovie to add them to my movie and I am getting the message they are protected and unavailable. I have tried adding other tunes but am getting the same thing - why?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 8, 2020 11:44 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 8, 2020 11:58 PM

How did you download the songs? Did you download them from Apple Music or purchase them individually from the iTunes Store?

You cannot use the songs you saved from Apple Music in an iMovie Project, only purchased songs, that are not "Protected AAC". Occasionally older songs are only available at the iTunes Store as protected files, usually as a part of a collection album.

To see why the song cannot be used, open the song in the Music.app, open the Info with the key combination ⌘I and look at the "File" tab. What is shown as the "Kind" of the song? Does it show "Apple Music" or "Protected AAC audio file"?


If the song is neither Apple Music nor a protected AAC file, it may need downloading from iCloud, so it is a local copy.


1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 8, 2020 11:58 PM in response to kgillwood

How did you download the songs? Did you download them from Apple Music or purchase them individually from the iTunes Store?

You cannot use the songs you saved from Apple Music in an iMovie Project, only purchased songs, that are not "Protected AAC". Occasionally older songs are only available at the iTunes Store as protected files, usually as a part of a collection album.

To see why the song cannot be used, open the song in the Music.app, open the Info with the key combination ⌘I and look at the "File" tab. What is shown as the "Kind" of the song? Does it show "Apple Music" or "Protected AAC audio file"?


If the song is neither Apple Music nor a protected AAC file, it may need downloading from iCloud, so it is a local copy.


protected and unavailable songs in iMovie - purchased after 2009

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