I got a new cd and an ipod for Christmas. Naturally, one of the first things that someone in this position does is to combine the two. While ripping the CD to itunes, a message came up about copy protection, licensing, and the computer needing to have a file installed before it can play the music. Okay, whatever. I own the CD, and am not planning to share it on kazaa so everything should be fine. Once the CD is in the itunes library, it’s loaded onto the ipod along with all the rest of the songs with no problem.
Everything was going fairly well, but some of the songs on the ipod kept skipping and sounded garbled. At first I thought that some of the songs were corrupted during the transfer, but then it became clear that all of the bad files were from the new cd. After a google search I learned that: A. the cd can only be played on certain mp3 players, and that windows formatted ipods aren’t one of them. B. This is old news.
A decision to only support windows based devices is understandable. Is it too hard to warn people though? People have been having this problem for awhile, so why hasn’t anyone done anything? Why not put a large sticker on the CD stating that it’s not compatible with one of the most popular music players around? Computer games have had minimum specs and compatibility problems printed on the package since the beginning of time, so this isn’t a new idea. If this had been done then, okay. I’d be annoyed that there were so many different kinds of incompatible music protection, but I could return the CD and buy the songs again in an ipod supported format. Now it’s been opened and can’t be returned.
I don’t appreciate having to search online to find work-arounds just to be able to enjoy something obtained legally.
It was the velvet revolver cd. I also have to note that the CD did have a sticker that said that it only played on standard devices and a website for questions, and pit me for believing that the ipod qualified without checking first. So, I blame me and the company for this headache. I wonder if this ipod purchase will mean that I can forget about buying new CDs in the near future.
Disclaimer: Kidding. I never have and never will download .mp3’s from the internet without paying from them. I would never consider stealing music, and certainly wouldn’t use the SDMB to endore illegal music. Copying CD’s from friends will also land you in 5-10 years of federal maximum security prison.
If I had purchased this CD and couldn’t play it on my mp3 player, I would certainly be much more likely to return the disc and get the music in a cheaper less-than-legal fashion.
Certainly this kind of thing encourages piracy far more that it fights it.
Copy protection does, indeed, sux0r. Many recent “copy protection” schemes either automatically install software when loaded on standard Windows machines, or will insist that you do so yourself. Even worse, many of them co-opt the bits reserved for error correction (that car stereos especially use to prevent skipping) and use them for their copy prevention schemes, thus lowering the quality of their “CD”.
(I quote that acronym because if you look closely, there is no “compact disc” logo on the CD or case - these disks aren’t standard redbook CDs, thus Pioneer refuses to let them use the CD logo).
I got a copy protected Radiohead “CD” for Christmas that I’m not even opening; I’ll be exchanging it for something that’ll work properly in every player I own.
Yeah, but if you only discover it after opening the CD, you’re screwed-most places won’t take back CDs that are opened-they’ll only exchange them for the same thing.
I sort of look forward to the day when I buy a “CD” and discover it won’t work in my computer. The only way they’d get me out of that store is with cash in my hands or handcuffs around them.
It doesn’t matter what the music industry comes up with to combat piracy, someone out there will discover a workaround. Remember Sony’s billion dollar copy protection scheme which could be defeated by a Sharpie? :wally
The simple fact of the matter is that technology is driving changes which make current business models obsolete. Given that there are enormous pressures driving those new technologies, the record labels have about as much hope of holding on to their way of life as the horse and buggy whip manufacturers did when old Hank Ford fired up his car for the first time.
Ugh they should cover this in Business 101. Here we have a way to have nearly no overhead, no servers, no stores, no nothing and the record companies are ignoring it. Think about it charge 10-15 bucks for a Kazaa like system release a few copies into the system and forget about it.
As you insert the CD, hold the Left Shift button. Release it when the CD has loaded. You should be able to play it normally using the media player of your choice, and iTunes should be able to read it properly.
If this is one of those discs that installs a driver that messes with audio extraction, just holding shift the next time you insert it won’t be enough. You’ll also have to track down that driver and remove it.
Dude, next time you acquire one of these CDs, wish you had a Mac, the Sound Studio program that comes with it, a CD player, and a mini-to-mini stereo patch cord.
I received not one but two CDs for Christmas which do NOT play properly in any computer CD player. I don’t have a home stereo; I set up a whole multimedia PC instead which is used to play the 500+ legally purchased CDs we have. The only CD player I have that will work with them is in my car, so when I want to listen to the LEGAL CDs that were LEGALLY purchased, I must either:
Listen to them in my car, or
Download MP3s of the songs I should be able to play
since, of course, no store will take back the opened discs. There was no warning label on them, nor any warning anywhere inside the liner notes, and yet, somehow I should be punished for that.
What exactly is the incentive of the average person to continue to buy CDs which don’t work in modern multimedia devices? What great plan will the RIAA come up with next - bringing back the 8-Track? From now on every time I see some dingus on here argue about the poor pitiable artists that “need” to corrupt CDs with Mickey Mouse copy protection, I’m going to look over at these two CDs and ask them how it’s ethical to them to sell a product which is known to be defective and to refuse to refund the money for the defective product.
Unfortunately, as Mr2001 said, once the cd has installed the drivers on your computer, it’s too late to use the shift key trick. As others have noted, once the cd is open, then it’s yours. Getting the store to take it back wouldn’t be easy, and I’d hate to take it out on some blameless store clerk. I agree that it really should be considered a virus. According to some of the work-around instructions, some of the drivers even change the install date so that you can’t find it by doing a simple hard drive search of modification and installation dates.
Barbarian, I’ve been coveting my roomate’s Mac and ipod for awhile now. One down, one to go j/k. No mac for me until they stop getting shafted in the games department. Even if I had one, it’s still the principle of the thing.
This really just needs to be said again. This is the part that really bothers me now that I really think about it. If you buy a music CD there should be no question of whether or not it will work in your system.
So take it out on the manager. He’s the one with the authority to take back an opened, defective “CD”. If he can’t do it, call his regional manager right there, loudly, on your cell phone. Repeat until you are given a refund or forcibly removed from the store.
