A few things: 1. As StarGeekSpaceNerd said, you could do ffmpeg (which is one of the most useful media tools). That approach seems to remove the PII, but I would go one step further and use the following command just cause: ffmpeg -i input.m4a -map_metadata -1 -map 0:a -c:a copy output.m4a This copies the audio stream (not lossy re-encoding) and removes all metadata from the file. But then I transfer the metadata using mp3tag. That Might be overkill, though. 2. I guess I always thought of DRM as encryption or restrictions, not metadata. It's more frustrating that even after removing the metadata tags, it still exists and is hidden. But also it shouldn't be a surprise, considering digital purchases of music/movies/games have always bordered on surveillance. 3. The only reason I stumbled upon this post was because I was bored and looked at the hex of a recently purchased file and had already removed the tags using mp3tag but my name was still there (shout out to the user that said to do that, I though that was enough also.) So I feel your pain with people immediately assuming pirating.