This is Why DRM Doesn’t Work
I got this notice from WalMart Digital music. I bought one track there to try out their store back in December of 2005. I have been a vocal advocate, for those who know me, of not buying DRM protected music (i.e., buying digital online files prior to stores releasing songs as MP3s). My argument has been that you are essentially "renting" the right to music, and consumers are totally at the mercy of the company from which their music is bought for it to work. If they decide you are a bad person, they go out of business, or they change directions, the consumer is out of luck. Here is the notice:
Important Information About Your Digital Music Purchases
We hope you are enjoying the increased music quality/bitrate and the improved usability of Walmart’s MP3 music downloads. We began offering MP3s in August 2007 and have offered only DRM (digital rights management) -free MP3s since February 2008. As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site .
If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD . By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer. This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free.
Beginning October 9, we will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com. If you do not back up your files before this date, you will no longer be able to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash . Your music and video collections will still play on the originally authorized computer.
Thank you for using Walmart.com for music downloads. We are working hard to make our store better than ever and easier to use.
I don’t like to say I told you so, but I told you so. With all the big music stores going from DRM-protected downloads to MP3’s (i.e., non-protected), it was only a matter of time before the stores stopped supporting DRM. For those who bought DRM-protected downloads, you will no longer be able to activate computers to listen to your previously purchased tracks, at least from Walmart.
Instead, Walmarts provides a solution: you should burn a CD to preserve the music. The trouble with this solution is that you lose the quality (fidelity) when you burn to CD then re-rip as an MP3. Record companies have allowed users who buy their DRM-protected music to this since the dawn of the iTunes store because they knew that the resultant quality was substandard. So Walmart’s solution really isn’t a very good solution at all. For those heavily invested, that investment is essentially flushed.
If the record companies had any integrity whatsoever, they would authorize Walmart to replace all DRM-protected tracks in MP3 format. I wouldn’t hold my breath.