Music Exec
More wheel Spinning Dept.
Reader and contgributor Michael Fielder gives us this crontribution. He’s not the only one complaining. This is a disaaster done for no apparent reason. You cannot play this is your PC without installing some sort of special software that does who-knows-what.
John:
I just wanted to bring to your attention that the just released “Stand Up” CD by the Dave Matthews Band is encrypted so that you can’t play or record it on your computer unless you download a digital key from SunComm. When you do get the digital key, it only lets you play downloaded .wma files, which are compressed. You cannot get .wav files. The CD does play full bandwidth on a normal CD player. I wrote a letter, which I have enclosed below, to SunComm complaining about this. In looking at their site, there are about 50 other cd’s that have been encrypted like this. Bottom line is that the media police are at it again, and the consumer is the loser. Maybe you could address this in one of your columns in PC Magazine. You can also tell by looking at the back of the cd that something is strange just by looking at the pattern on it.
Your ticket 011912 has been Answered
Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate your purchase of the Dave Matthews CD and apologize for any inconvenience.
Please note that due to the fact that some portable devices allow for the uploading of mp3 and wav files (note: these are un-secure file formats) to P to P sharing networks, MediaMax only supports those players that can play secure WMA files which do not allow for further transferring. We would like to suggest that you check your player’s tech support site to see if there are any firmware updates available.
Please let us know if we can assist you further.
Thank you.
Rob
SunnComm Tech Support
CLIENT: mfiedler@mn.rr.com
I use the Creative Media Player. My gripe is going to be: I would rather have full bandwidth with .wav files. This appears to only give me limited bandwidth .wma files; yes, I can hear the difference. This cd is of no use to me if I can’t transfer the files as .wav files to my computer. I have a collection of about 4,000 cd’s and never allow anyone to copy them, and copies I make are for my own purposes (my listening pleasure). If I am not understanding something, please set me straight, but if I all can copy is .wma files, this cd will go back to the place I bought it, and I will boycott your products. I have worked in the media industry for 35 years, and this is carrying things too far.
Even on a Windows box with autorun enabled, I think that you can just hold down SHIFT when you insert the CD to prevent it from installing malware on your computer:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/09/2211259&tid=93&tid=141&tid=123&tid=17
Your ticket 017198 has been Answered
Thank you for contacting us Jeff. We appreciate your purchase of thie Dave Matthews Band CD and apologize for any
inconvenience.
The software on this disc is only directly compatible with specific secure formats and portable devices as detailed on the back of the CD packaging as well in the interface on the disc.
That said, there is still a way to get content onto portable devices that are not directly compatible with the disc at this time. Please follow the instructions below in order to do so:
If you have a Mac computer you can copy the songs using your standard media player as you would normally do.
If you have a PC place the CD into your computer and allow the CD to automatically start. If the CD does not automatically start, open your Windows Explorer, locate the drive letter for your CD drive and double-click on the LaunchCD.exe file located on your CD.
Once the application has been launched and the End User License Agreement has been accepted, you click the Copy Songs button /icon.
Follow the instructions to copy the secure Windows Media Files (WMA) to your PC. Make a note of where you are copying the songs to, you will need to get to these secure Windows Media Files in the next steps.
Once the WMA files are on your PC you can open and listen to the songs with Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher or any compatible player that can play secure Windows Media files, such as MusicMatch, RealPlayer, and Winamp.
Using any of the compatible players noted above, you can then burn the songs to a CD. Please note that in order to burn the files, you need to upgrade to or already have Windows Media Player 9, MusicMatch 8, or Media Center 10.
Once the CD has been burned, place the copied CD back into your computer and open the media player you normally use for ripping and transferring files to your portable device. You can now rip the songs as you would a normal CD.
Please note an easier and more acceptable solution requires cooperation from the various digital rights management and portable device companies. SONY BMG has already reached out to many of the companies in hopes of addressing this issue. To help speed this effort, we ask that you contact your device manufacturer and ask them to provide a solution that would easily allow you to move content from protected CDs onto your device rather than having to go through the additional steps above.
Please let us know if we can assist you further.
Thank you,
Michal
SunnComm Tech Support
CLIENT: spikebebop7@yahoo.com
I want to put my music on to my psp. but i think that the psp can only support mp3s instead of wma
IT WORKS!
mp3 baby!
Well… With that kind of inconvienance and hi cost for low album lengths and tracks, its no wonder the world is turning to P2P programs to get the full 80mins that the average cdr holds at quality.
After all… what happened to that EXTRA TAX that was applied to blank CD-R’s to compensate the “Fat cat” for custom cd’s… now they say we can’t do that… hrmmm…
Guess nobody said that “Fat cat” was a “smart cat” eh?
Love from Canada