Went out to grab some CDs today, and came back with the new Jenny Lewis and Cat Power records. Those should be fun to listen to. I also hope to enjoy the new Beth Orton album, and I picked it up in the store today. And then put it right back down. I’m not buying it.
Someone had the infinite wisdom to make Orton’s Comfort Of Strangers a copy-protected disc. Whether it will launch a crappy proprietary player on my computer, install a malicious rootkit or just give me MP3s full of static when I try to rip it, I don’t know. In fact, I’ll never know because I’m never buying another copy-protected disc again after the whole Broken Social Scene fiasco. And to think, I was starting to really like Beth Orton again. I know she doesn’t appreciate people downloading her work, but that’s no reason to punish the people who actually want to buy her music. The fact that Comfort Of Strangers was floating around the internet long before the album’s street date yesterday shows that anyone who’s determined to listen to the album without paying for it will be easily accomodated regardless of whatever hoops you make legitimate customers jump through. And in case you think copy protection is a necessary evil, think again.
I highly encourage you to download a copy of Orton’s album if you’re interested in listening to it. Do not, under any circumstances, purchase any copy of her album that displays the Copy Controlled logo and warning.
8 Responses
I bought the 2-CD edition of Comfort of Strangers at a local store and it was not copy-protected — this is the edition that includes a bonus CD of 6 songs. I was able to rip both CDs to my work computer and at home.
Jim, February 8th, 2006 at 8:22 pmThe dirty little secret: Big recording company are measuring the download rate to determine how many CD’s they should print.
And you are right. I will never buy any copy protected CD EVER. Beth Orton or not.
Andy in LI, February 9th, 2006 at 1:34 amIf the limited edition truly isn’t copy-protected, then I might consider picking it up. But even then, think of the precedent this sets up: you’ll have to pay a premium for the kind of product you used to be able to purchase normally, almost entirely because of a publisher’s paranoia. I’m loathe to reward EMI in any way for this sort of behavior.
I should mention that I’m in Canada; I don’t know if the U.S. or European releases are different from ours.
Wesley, February 9th, 2006 at 4:20 amI hope you enjoy that new Cat Power album; I’ve really been digging it.
I agree with how you feel about artists that have DRM attached to their albums… I won’t buy their CD anymore and I’ll wait for the hacked mp3s to surface online. It’s a shame, because the DRM is what stopped me from buying My Morning Jacket’s “Z”. I’m in the US by the way.
matt, February 9th, 2006 at 5:09 pmwell that’s silly - it probably isn’t her but the label… and while I do agree that nobody should pre determine for me how to use a product I buy her creative fruits are worth 14 bucks… plus buy a mac and you can rip any cd, copy protection is for pc’s only
do, February 21st, 2006 at 9:23 pmI purchased the 2CD UK version and it’s copy protected. I’ve tried a few things but I’m taking it back. The best way to copy it is to find a friend with a Mac running OS X.
Pengranger, February 22nd, 2006 at 2:08 amShe may not have explicitly asked for the copy protection but she does implicitly support it by not doing anything to stop it (and her stance on downloading music suggests she’d be easily convinced even if she didn’t know about it). Her creative effort is certainly worth paying money for, but I’d like to be able to actually enjoy it. Like I mentioned before, the only people copy protection hurts are the people who actually buy CDs; the people determined to download music will do so regardless of the technical roadblocks.
As for the “buy a Mac” idea, I’m not going to buy a $1400 computer just to listen to a CD, and the idea that I should is ludicrous. Flip things around: if Beth Orton put out a CD that you couldn’t listen to on a Mac, the Mac community would be up in arms about the whole thing, and they’d be right.
Wesley, February 22nd, 2006 at 3:14 amI wasn’t aware of her stance, having read the link I think she does support the copy protection for sure… and I hate to say this but I can’t really blame her… if downloading is keeping her from earning money then it’s wrong, she isn’t mariah carey who can afford to lose money… if this site became a subscription based site and I came in everyday and copy and pasted its content onto another site for free, well that would at some point annoy the owner of this blog - even if it wasn’t subscription based it would still annoy the creator. Trust me this isn’t a simple issue to resolve - I have no sympathy for the truly large artists because their music isn’t that good and they can afford loses, but smaller ones need every penny… I have a blog and post tracks for people to hear stuff I enjoy, but the problem isn’t people who download a track off of my site or this one but people who download entire albums off of Limewire… I have many friends that do and are content with never buying the album and truth is that if they created something they wouldn’t want anyone else giving it away… with that said I live in NYC and listen to the majority of my music on my ipod and not being able to transfer a cd onto my ipod is a real problem because then I am limited to home and I am rarely here…
do, February 23rd, 2006 at 11:58 pm