Microsoft's Rob Bennett is defending their decision to no longer issue DRM keys for people who purchased music from MSN Music. This will become effective August 31.
Microsoft closed the music store in November 2006. They have continued to offer DRM keys to people who purchased music and needed to move the tracks to new hardware. Now that they won't be able to obtain a new license, this means that the music will only last as long as the hardware it is loaded onto.
According to Bennett this is only going to affect a small number of people. He also feels that by backing up the music to CD and re-ripping in there will be little loss in fidelity.
The problem that I have had with that is tracks I've done that with had a lot of pops and hissing in them. I ended up having the purchase those songs again so I could get them without DRM.
I have not been a fan of DRM on music that I purchase. This just supports why trying to lock down legally purchased music doesn't work. When the company goes out of business you're stuck with music that will eventually need to be replaced. There is a place for DRM, just not on something that I've purchased.
Before getting my iPod, I had digital music players that supported subscriptions services. In my opinion that is the only acceptable use of DRM. I have payed at different times monthly fees to Napster, Yahoo Music, and Urge. I entered into those agreements with open eyes. I knew I would have unlimited downloads available to me for the month. If I wanted to continue listening to the music, I had to pay again next month. I also knew that if they shut up shop, the tracks would disappear. I was fully aware that I was only "renting" the music. If I wanted it permanently I would have to purchase it.
By using a subscription service, I got to listen to a lot of different artists. Some I liked and purchased their CDs. Some I couldn't delete fast enough. I looked at it as being no different that subscribing to a satellite radio service and discovering new music that way.
Thankfully the music industry is starting to wake up and realize that DRM is harmful to their business. Thanks to the rise of services like Amazon MP3
this problem will become a thing of the past. When you purchase an MP3, you can back it up in its original file format and transfer it without any restrictions between different computers and players. I know this doesn't help the MSM Music customers now, but hopefully they and others will get the word out about how their music became useless.
Microsoft closed the music store in November 2006. They have continued to offer DRM keys to people who purchased music and needed to move the tracks to new hardware. Now that they won't be able to obtain a new license, this means that the music will only last as long as the hardware it is loaded onto.
According to Bennett this is only going to affect a small number of people. He also feels that by backing up the music to CD and re-ripping in there will be little loss in fidelity.
The problem that I have had with that is tracks I've done that with had a lot of pops and hissing in them. I ended up having the purchase those songs again so I could get them without DRM.
I have not been a fan of DRM on music that I purchase. This just supports why trying to lock down legally purchased music doesn't work. When the company goes out of business you're stuck with music that will eventually need to be replaced. There is a place for DRM, just not on something that I've purchased.
Before getting my iPod, I had digital music players that supported subscriptions services. In my opinion that is the only acceptable use of DRM. I have payed at different times monthly fees to Napster, Yahoo Music, and Urge. I entered into those agreements with open eyes. I knew I would have unlimited downloads available to me for the month. If I wanted to continue listening to the music, I had to pay again next month. I also knew that if they shut up shop, the tracks would disappear. I was fully aware that I was only "renting" the music. If I wanted it permanently I would have to purchase it.
By using a subscription service, I got to listen to a lot of different artists. Some I liked and purchased their CDs. Some I couldn't delete fast enough. I looked at it as being no different that subscribing to a satellite radio service and discovering new music that way.
Thankfully the music industry is starting to wake up and realize that DRM is harmful to their business. Thanks to the rise of services like Amazon MP3
this problem will become a thing of the past. When you purchase an MP3, you can back it up in its original file format and transfer it without any restrictions between different computers and players. I know this doesn't help the MSM Music customers now, but hopefully they and others will get the word out about how their music became useless.
Amazon MP3
DRM
Microsoft
MSN Music
Rob Bennett
