Oh no it couldn’t. Talk about misinformation and not knowing your own company’s software.
Unless you are referring to the ridiculous process of burning the song to a cd and then extracting it as an MP3.
Looks around 2015, the MP3 conversion feature was added. See other conversation. BTW, thank you Apple for doing this.
All songs purchased from Apple had DRM enabled which locked them down. Plus, the file was in an Apple proprietary format that was only compatible on Apple devices. Convenient for Apple, no doubt.
So... if you knew your history, you would know that that the DRM lock was added as a way to appease the media companies. The media companies were hyper paranoid after Napster. You remember Napster, correct? And the preferred format for song distribution under Napster was MP3. By adding a DRM, it prevented mass copying and distribution. It might have even made the file traceable to the origin.
First of all, it is not "my company." I have no business relationship with Apple. I am not, and never have been an employee of Apple or any of their suppliers, advertisers, or any ancillary companies. I own my own business that uses both Apple OS and Microsoft OS computers. . . and support other businesses that use both as well as Linux computers.
Secondly, just because YOU did not know that a piece of software had a capability YOU did not know it had, does not mean it did not have that capability. . . and no, I am not referring to "the ridiculous process of burning the song to a cd and then extracting it as an MP3."
Apple's iTunes software has had the capability of creating MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC, Apple Lossless (.m4a), and other format music and sound files for many years on CDs, Macs, and PCs, to files, to memory sticks, etc. Many DJs used Macs and Mac minis as the source devices for their businesses at weddings, dances, parties, etc., using iTunes with the music files on the HD in some of those formats. I've attended weddings where that occurred in the mid 2000s.
Could one REMOVE the DRM from purchase iTunes music LEGALLY in the early years? No. That was illegal under the licensing from the music publishers and Apple could not allow that capability under their contracts with the publishers to sell their music. if Apple had included that capability to strip DRM from that music, the publishers would have pulled their music from Apple's iTunes Store. However iTunes allowed ripping from CDs one already owned and creating MP3 files in all of those formats on one's computer or any other digital media, technically for archival purposes (wink, wink) and did not share those "archives" with any one else. In 2001, when the iPod and iTunes were first released, that was the only way to put music on the iPod as the iTunes music store was not even opened until April 28, 2003.
In February 2007, Steve Jobs famously wrote the open letter to the music publishing industry pointing out their hypocrisy which got them to change their DRM requirements. . . and got them to offer non-DRM tracks and albums for a slightly higher price (99¢ for DRM tracks and $1.29 for non-DRM), changing the music industry forever.
I do know my history, while you obviously don't know the history of iTunes capabilities. You made ASSUMPTIONS based on limited experience and challenge the actual fully familiar experience of people who used it thoroughly and KNOW the abilities of the software arguing from your position of ignorance trying to tell US what we DO KNOW.