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Once again, the record companies bite the hand that feeds them...

Basturds ! What if you download it from i-tunes? Or maybe you can't download it from i-tunes.

If the CD doesn't work with iPods, return it for a refund. Complain that it won't copy to your iPod. Don't forget to make a duplicate of the CD first before returning it.

Back Street Boys? Who cares?

And then, you can figure out later how to strip off MS's DRM scheme.

It may only be Backstreet Boys now, but better stop it in its tracks before it proliferates to all CDs.

All those worried about playing a Backstreet CD on their iPods raise your hand!

How can Record labels think this will work ?
The ipod market share should dictate, not the other way around.
My family alone has 15-20 ipod's in it, knowing this I will never buy another Sony or any other record companys CD taht I cannot put on my iPod. And I feel the Gov't should make the record companies list system requirements like computer software does. If it doesn't say iPod compatible I wont buy it.. hope you're following along SONY & all others.

To Eric:

Have you ever tried to return an opened CD whether it be a game cd or music?

You can't...

You can return it for another one saying it's defective then return the unopened one. Not thatI've ever done that LOL

Just buy it from iTunes - for way less than the stupid CD would cost.

Not sure if this uses the same protection scheme as the Dave Mathews Band's latest CD, but if so, Playlist mag had a workaround - play it on a Mac. Seems the copy protection scheme only worked on Windows. Sony Music's really stupid.

Here's an article about it:

http://playlistmag.com/weblogs/todayatplaylist/2005/06/rearviewreality/index.php

Can you buy it on i-tunes?

I've got the answer: NO COPY PROTECTION.
The music industry continues to bite the hand that feeds them and Apple was forced to play along to begin with. I'm pissed that the music I buy on iTunes can only be used on a computer or iPod. There are a ton of possibilities if the files were not copy protected with Fairplay. And yes I know about burning a CD to get around the protection, but that is hardly consumer friendly. If they're going to use copy protection then they should create a standard and use it across the board for all consumer devices.

Come on, the same songs are now found at the Apple iTunes store for download. Better yet, the iTunes store offers more songs and bonus material than the CD does! It's only the poor saps who don't own or know how to use and iPod that actually visit a music store to purchase a CD. The only reason I would visit a local Music retail shop would be to find music you can't find in the iTunes store. Companies know the market is changing and Apple controls the new method of distributing legal music. Let them continue creating all sorts of new encryption for their tangible products, it's the online buyers who now control the market.

Will they play on my 10 year old CD player? How about the one in my car? Nether of these players have Windows DRM. I don't get it.

If I wanted a disk that would only play on a windows machine I"d buy my tunes from Napster.

I can't even remember the last time I bought a CD. So, I guess I could care less what they do. As long as the songs I want are on iTunes I'm a happy girl!

this is to protect the labels from the release of the tracks onto p2p networks, with a 2ndary result being it blocks loading onto an ipod. just buy it from itunes and rip it to cd to clear the drm and rip it back. bingo no drm, no worries.

Return, return return. Be sure to buy at a store that sells iPods, Circuit City, Best Buy..... It doesn't work on something they sell in there store they will refund or mark the disks that won't work. No piece of music is that important. Perhaaps the store should not carry the labels with a problem. If no one buys them they won't.

Some consumer activist group should make them put stickers on the CDs: "COPY PROTECTED - This CD may only be copied three times and is not compatible with the iPod". Let's see how many they sell then.

"There are a ton of possibilities if the files were not copy protected with Fairplay."

Care to name a few of these "tons" of possibilities? What else do you want to do with the music beside play it on the computer, a CD, or on your iPod? Upload it on P2P, perhaps? If that's your game, then there are still plenty of technical options outside of burning to CD and re-ripping.

Other music services use DRM, too.

Bought the (Dual Disc) CD and it rips into iTunes (and my iPod) fine - because I'm on a Mac. BUT, this is a potential problem for those of us who like to manage our own music - If they labels can force Steve to include features in iTunes 5.0 that watch for their protection "flags" we could have the same FairPlay usage terms automatically applied to CDs that we rip.

By the way, the CD is clearly labeled as "not conforming to the compact disc format and may not be playable on all CD players". It does not have the Compact Disc logo on it. I think that might protect them from returns...

Treating customers as thieves infuriates me. Good news that this doesn't work on a Mac.

Once I purchase music, I should be able to do what I want to shift the space, time or whatever allows me access to my purchased content. If I want to put a movie/song I bought onto a server or iPod at my house to access whenever I want, then that should be my right.

As a note to why this is a bad idea, my wife has a workout DVD that she uses frequently. Unfortunately it does not play correctly, but wasn't obvious until months after she bought it. According to the **AA thinking, we would need to buy it again. Why should I pay again because they are too cheap to press the DVD correctly the first time? This is not acceptable.

Unfortunately, iTunes is not the complete answer until they start selling CD quality songs.

There is always a hack around any obsticle.
I have not bought a CD since iTunes was launched, the record companies are fools. They can spend billions to stop piracy, and some hacker can find a workaround in 10 minutes.
They should make The Backstreet Boys CD's only play on Mars, they suck.
The backstreet boy's are getting old enough to stop being called boys anyway. Should they have gone away by now ? they must have naked pictures of all the major record exec's

So long as I can download it from iTunes WHO CARES (Yes you can get this piece of shit album on iTunes) the same thing was going on with "Velvet Revolver" people complained and the record companies made it available.

CDs are becoming a thing of the past.....I only buy them from used "Record" stores (the few that are sill in business) for old out of print CDs that have NO DRM.

I generally argue that DRM is a good thing, although it doesn't win me many friends. lol. That said, I'll be watching the developments with interest. I suspect if folks were going to buy primarily other brands of 'pods' in great numbers, they would have done so by now.

I'm guessing it's the record companies, as opposed to Apple, who will ultimately be looking poorly in the eyes of the public over this particular circumstance. We'll see. Either way, I doubt Apple will be hurt much by this.

What would these companies do if they later decided that way too many of their recordings were being moved around on Windows media formats? Lock down Windows formats too, I guess. Well, good luck. heh

Sure, like I'd call Apple if the CD I purchase wouldn't allow me to copy it. I forget which CD it was, but I bought one that was copy protected this year. I shipped it back, and waited for the album to hit iTunes. Which it did.

1. Nobody cares about the backstreet boys!

2. People with an iPod are buying the backstreet boys off of iTunes!

3. This isn't going to affect Apple/iTunes/iPod in any way!

My issue is not with the DRM, it is whether when the album is ripped to a PC/Mac or copied (for backup / compilations) I can use the AIFF files.

I seriuosly do not want Apple, Sony or anyone else to specify what bit rate my music is ripped or copied at. I want to have the freedom to rip at a lossless rate or copy the original AIFF files so that I do not lose audio quality.

At the moment, I rarely buy iTunes songs because I would prefer them at 192 bps. Therefore I get CDs since I can rip them at whatever rate I want. And if I want to re-rip the songs at a higher bit rate I have that option. Eventually, when a cheap 60-100 GB ipod comes around, I want everything in lossless format which means I will need the original AIFF files on the CD.

So my big question is whether the new copy protection scheme will prevent me from doing that (on a Mac)?

Another question is when will Apple start lossening the strings on Fairplay. They are giving M$ the opportunity to gain traction in the market for generic copy-protection. The use of Fairplay and ACC for CDs would allow both PCs and Macs to hav some form of copy-protection and be compatible with the leading MP3 players (iPods) as well as other devices. As with the Motorola deal, Apple does not have to give the whole technology away, just where M$ is locking out others.

Will the cds play on a mac? I thought that Windows Media player DRM didn't work on the mac?

you can return CDs for a store credit. i've done it before after burning a copy.

you just gotta make a big enough fuss about if they don't comply at first.

If people start saying that disks from Sony and BMG might not work and there's no way you'll get a refund people will stop buying from these companies. Start telling everyone now that Sony music won't play on your iPod, Keep telling hem until most people stop buying from them.
"When it's you against the world, bet heavily, on the world."

it's painfully obvious that Sony needs to split up into two companies for it's own survival. The synergies that should have made Sony hardware work with their media company are turing out to be an Albatross around their neck.

There is one huge point missing here, and that is the demographical one. The hot market for iPods right now is the 13-30's female. This falls in line with the demographic who will purchase the Backstreet cd's. Who do you think that these individuals will complain to...Apple.

I agree that the player takes precident over the music. This is just a bad choice for the record lables. They will test on cd's that have lower markets and then push the technology on the more popular bands. They will not do this yet as the money making bands have more clout with the lables. This will be interesting to watch.

By the way, I haven't purchased a cd since iTunes went online. Why buy whole unless it is a good band and there are additional extras not on the cd?

When will these crack-head record company execs learn?

They claim music downloads were killing "their" industry, so Apple innovates and now iTunes is more popular than the pirate p2p sites. And now, instead of working with Apple to give the people what they want, they try this shit to see if it will stick. I give up. {he sighs}

The Feds need to get these crack-heads into clinic so we can by music how and when we damd well please, sort of like in a "free market" system.

Ah, Rock on Steve!

Like this would "force" Apple to license Fairplay?????


All Apple would have to do is allow iTunes to READ WMA protected songs and convert them into AAC.

Apple does not have to open up Fairplay.

HOWEVER, this would require Jobs and Apple to license WMA, which would never happen while iTMS is still profitable.


But, DVD Jon (or someone else) could write a WMA to AAC conversion utility which would work.

I'll be downloading music from any Sony artist I like from p2p from now on then. Another tactic might be to inform said artists of your actions, the why's and how's, as well as how it will impact their (albeit-miniscule-after-the-record-company-takes-their-obscene-cut) profits / royalties.

Let the artists know that their label is making it impossible for you to financially support them, and that you can't play their music on the same shiny white box that many of them like to flash around on MTV, etc. and we might see some sparks fly.

(BTW - I won't pay for music downloads, even from iTunes, until they are in a non-compressed format)

This is no different than Apple putting DRM on its music from iTMS. I've said it before, I refuse to buy any music with DRM on it. Now it looks like I won't be buying CD's anymore. Even if this DRM doesn't work on Macs, its just geared to stop the casual Windows user. But I won't buy any music that has copy protection on it. Including Dave Mathews Band.

My email consisted of, Congratulations, I will now boycott your music label. However I will continue to buy from the iTunes music store. I find it sad that you have to go to such low measures as to sell CD's that are not CD's but actually copy protected software discs that should not be sold in the CD section. I wouldn't doubt if you get sued for false advertising by not labeling these as such.

This is just another reason to keep buying from the Apple iTunes Music store.

The DRM scheme at issue DOES NOT affect the Macintosh. I sent Sony a letter at the link posted earlier that I would not buy any CD that contains any form of DRM and would not buy any online music based in part or in whole on Microsoft's Janus DRM. The system they are using is 3rd party but is based upon the Janus DRM MS developed for Windoze Media Player.

If they will not support the Mac, don't support them with your $.

These CD's will play on Macs and Linux machines. The copy protection is pretty lame and Sony admits that it is. It is basically just there to be a PITA for Windows users to prevent the casual user from uploading their CD to a P2P. So Mac and Linux users can still copy these CD's to their iPod. Only Windows users get screwed. So this actually helps Apple. Just as long as Steve doesn't share Fairplay with the record labels. He's actually doing us a favor guys by not allowing the record labels to use it.

"you can return CDs for a store credit. i've done it before after burning a copy."
- and people wonder why we have DRM


And let me get this straight...it's okay for Apple to sell DRM music that can only work on one device, but other companies shouldn't be allowed to? The consumers will ultimately decide based on what they purchase, but Apple is doing no service to the consumer by limiting its own product.

What are these CDs everyone speaks of?

"
"you can return CDs for a store credit. i've done it before after burning a copy."
- and people wonder why we have DRM


And let me get this straight...it's okay for Apple to sell DRM music that can only work on one device, but other companies shouldn't be allowed to? The consumers will ultimately decide based on what they purchase, but Apple is doing no service to the consumer by limiting its own product."
"

I would draw a distinction between the physical media of a CD and an electronic download. The whole idea of iTunes was based on DRM music as pitched to the music labels. CDs have traditionally been free of such. Their security came from the fact that most people keep the physical entity that they purchase. True there was certainly a lot of duplication going on; but most people would just record to a tape to go in their Walkman ( ). Apple NEVER represented the music as DRM-free; the record labels would probably never gone along with it in the first place had Apple not had a reasonable system to show them. Fairplay represents a compromise; the labels would like to now put DRM on the physical media, but it may be too late. It's kind of like that period several years ago when there was talk of charging for web content, but most people had become very accustomed to FREE content.

The horse is out of the barn and they are trying to nail the gate shut.

MDN MW = "money" as in "It's all about the money."

@disillusioned

Since when do songs purchased from Apple 'only work on one device?'

300,000 copies of the back-street boys??!!! Is there that much baby-sitting money changing hands in our shopping malls??!! Who cares- probably not too many iPod owners in that age group anyway.

Fritz explains that because the discs use Microsoft's Windows Media DRM technology, they prevent consumers from transferring songs onto Apple iPods which currently holds about 80% of the U.S. market. This is a ploy to force Apple to "open its proprietary iPod and let others sell antipiracy-protected songs that work on the device," Fritz writes.

What are you talking about? Microsoft's DRM is as proprietary as Apple's Fairplay, the only difference is Apple maintains iPod dominance while Microsoft maintains Windows dominance. Both strategies are the same, but are at different levels of the game.

Nuke China and other parts of Asia... they're the one's causing this crap by pirating CD's/DVD's ad nauseum.

For me it's easy. I *will not* buy their CDs. End of story.

So Sony BMG and EMI, your problems just got bigger. Music will still be pirated by some irrespective of your (lame and easily defeated) DRM scheme *and* you've lost my business.

To the Sony Execs: Think about that for a while. Really. It shouldn't take too long. Now you're losing more than before...

All you have to do is email them and they will tell you how to break the DRM.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000413047159/

Huh!
"One device" as in one brand of mp3 players. Sure, you can play iTMS songs on computers, CD players and other products, but that's not the point I was making since you can do that with Sony's new CDs as well. The point is that it is proprietary and Apple has not been too anxious to allow other's to use Fairplay. Sony, on the other hand, has been more than willing to use Fairplay on their CDs, but Apple won't allow it.

I would prefer a world where DRM wasn't necessary but as long as we have the "you can return CDs for a store credit. i've done it before after burning a copy" attitude it's never going to happen. Fine, I can live with that. A lot of people here complain about the decisions that companies make that negatively affect their purchases without realizing that their beloved Apple is doing the same thing. Either be honest about the issues when you complain or just learn to deal with the way things are.