2006-10-09 File Sharing Boosts Sales

At least it does in my case. I spent the weekend ripping some CDs, looking through my music folders, producing a nice playlist of music I listened to when I was younger. Then I decided I was missing some important pieces and bought CDs for over USD 100.

Hm. I wonder whether I would have bought those CDs if I could have just downloaded them from some torrent site. Maybe not. But I would have bought them for USD 5 per CD or something like that. But certainly not for USD 1 per track with DRM included. Brrr!

DRM

Then again, it shows the weakness of the entire system: I don’t think I can get “Tricky vs. The Gravediggaz: Hell EP” anywhere legally. I got one track from that EP somewhere a long time ago. And now I can’t get the rest. Grrr!

I still remember that I learnt about God Speed You Black Emperor via friends and MP3 files. Those were the days!

Update*: Got my CDs. I promised to myself that I’d buy all my future music by a particular artist from AllOfMP3 (remember linking to it may be illegal → 2006-06-07 Copyright) if the CDs were giving me grief.

AllOfMP3

2006-06-07 Copyright

Blowback by Tricky: No problem ripping them using iTunes on Windows.
The Rising by Bruce Springsteen, tour edition with bonus DVD: When I inserted the CD into my Windows machine it started playing at super-high volume. I didn’t know how to turn it off. As far as I could tell, it had taken over my computer. I realized that it didn’t have the CD logo on it. I downloaded CDex and ripped it. I got a DVD with it, but not because I wanted it. I think it was cheaper with DVD than without it. Or something. I can’t quite remember.
The Seeger Sessions by Bruce Springsteen, a 2-sided disc, one side with the audio CD, the other with a DVD. Amazingly, ripping this one was no problem at all.
Vulnerable by Tricky: An “enhanced CD” with a CD-ROM section containing three .mpg files, and some Windows autorun and exe files stuff. Amazingly, ripping this one was no problem either. This is getting better! 😄
Join the Dots by The Cure, B-sides and rarities 1978-2001: No problem either.

CDex

happy!

I also decided – in the spirit of RichardStallman, who calls DRM Digital *Restriction* Management instead of Digital Rights Management – to call these anti-customer systems copy *prevention instead of copy protection. They are protecting their* copies, but they are preventing *me* from copying!

DRM

Some of the CDDB data is weird. All the Tricky & Massive Attack stuff is classified as “Electronica/Dance” instead of “Trip-Hop”. Some of CDs are classified as compilations, even if the artist is the same for every single track. How strange. I must be misunderstanding the term “compilation”.