Why I won't buy DRM music

After I first got my Rio Karma a couple of years ago, I'd thought I'd buy some music downloads to supplement my CD collection that I had ripped. Big Mistake.

I bought 4 or 5 tracks. At the time, I was thinking of buying a Slim Devices Squeezebox (which I subsequently did), and was unsure of whether to get the more expensive wireless version. As a test of my wireless network, I set up my laptop over by the Hi-Fi and tried playing some of the music files from my main PC. Lo & Behold, when I tried to play one of the files I had 'bought' and downloaded, up pops the box informing me that the licence of the music file would be updated before it would be played (even though the file was still located on the main PC, the fact I was trying to play it from the laptop seemed to count as 1 instance of copying the file to another computer). I then sat and waited for at least 10 minutes, until I gave up watching the 'Updating Licence' message. One of the other files I downloaded had a licence restriction that prevented me copying it to the Rio.

That was the first and last time I bought any DRM 'protected' music files. My whole feeling towards DRM is that it is implemented solely for the benefit of hardware manufacturers - the fact that files bought from iTunes or Zune will only work on the iPod & Zune players respectively shows that the manufacturers main concern is that you are locked in to their product line. Wanna buy a new player? Too bad your music library won't play on it - but, hey, you can always go and buy it all over again from a competing store! Then we have the innocent sounding names for the DRM scheme - Fairplay (Apple) or PlaysForSure (Microsoft). What is fair about stopping you playing a legally bought file on a player made by someone else? It surely won't PlayForSure if you try and load a file from the MSN Music shop on an iPod!

So, what do I do? I buy the CD and rip it myself. It generally only costs £1 more, but I can rip it to high quality OGG or FLAC format, not the low quality 128Kbs you find on most music stores. And I can play the CD in the car. I would rather not have to buy the CD, as it just means more stuff cluttering up the house, but for me, there is no alternative.

For downloads I use Magnatune, who have a great selection of new music by unknown artists, all of a very high standard. All of their albums are DRM free and available as high quality downloads. I occasionally use eMusic, who are also DRM free, although I don't like their subscription based model.

The fact that these two stores exist and have not gone bankrupt shows the absurdity of the RIAA and their DRM lobby. If piracy were so bad, these stores simply wouldn't survive.

Someone needs to point out to the architects of these DRM schemes that Copyright law allows for fair use. The way DRM is currently implemented does not allow for any fair use as far as I'm concerned. What is the modern day equivalent of going round a mates house with a new CD? Put some downloaded files onto a memory stick, get round your mates house and oh, sorry, there is no internet connection there, so the licence can't be verified and you can't listen to the music. Too bad.

So, no DRM for me.