Tuesday, November 18, 2003
I am not happy.
I'm not depressed, mind you. This is no tale of woe. I am instead ANGRY.
I've been looking forward to The Beatles' Let It Be... Naked album for a while. I really didn't like the original version of The Long And Winding Road, complete with overwrought symphonic accompaniment, so the chance to hear it without that junk (and get a new version of one of my favourites, Don't Let Me Down) was one that I could not pass up. In my haste to grab the CD and buy it, I didn't actually notice the sinister little sticker on it saying "Copy-Controlled CD". I saw that later... and played it in the car without problems. On the back, it says it'll play on my Mac fine. So I was vaguely hopeful that I'd somehow be able to run it, and even if it's got some protection there will hopefully be ways around it.
Not for Macs, there aren't. All you can do is use the included application to play the music. You cannot play it through Apple's wonderful iTunes. You cannot rip it to your hard disk. You cannot burn copies of it. You cannot play it with your other songs or use it in playlists even with other Beatles songs. And most damning... you cannot transfer it to your iPod.
I'm not too angry about the Mac-PC thing (there ARE some apps that get around the copy protection on PCs). I'm angry that this has been done in the first place. I really, really don't care about CDs in general. For me, audio CDs are like the CD for Microsoft Office -- it's just a delivery mechanism. I buy CDs with the sole purpose of ripping the MP3s to my hard disk, not to play them. I do not own a stereo of any sort. I also do not own a standalone CD player (the only CD players I have are my Xbox, PlayStation, Power Mac, iBook etc). The CD itself means nothing. I want the music, and I want to play it on my computer. I want to listen to it in rotation with all my other songs. I want to be able to mix it with other tracks in a playlist. And I want it on my iPod. Most of my listening happens on-the-go via my iPod. Not being able to put music there is absolutely criminal.
To be frank, I don't believe in CDs. They are still useful, but their time is coming to a close. Oh, I'm sure they'll still exist, but the digital revolution means that the traditional use for CDs -- in Discmans, in stereos, in cars -- is ending, and ending fast. CDs were a great leap over tapes, but a lot of their advantages are trumped by MP3-based media. The Discman... honestly, when was the last time anyone you knew bought one? Compare that to the last time someone you knew bought an MP3 player. Stereos are still of course plentiful, but with PCs living in bedrooms now you also see more and more kids just hooking their computers to their stereos and pumping music out from there. And in the car, CD changers are clunky, big, and usually hard to access. And they're SLOW. MP3s allow you to totally mix up what you listen to... and if you want to switch tracks, it's generally a lot faster than a CD (even faster if you're on a different CD and need to access the changer).
And now, as we turn to MP3s and digital media, what happens? The recording industry wants us to keep our music in one place and keep using CDs. I'm sorry, but this is utterly unacceptable. I know there are serious disadvantages to the digital format, in particular copying. But look at the big picture here: Copy-protected CDs are ripped ANYWAY. The advantages of digital media and online music sales (see the wild success of the iTunes Music Store) -- not to mention the user-friendly angle I covered above -- are incredible. They are not listening, though. They are determined to hobble us, and it is working to their detriment.
So now we have this utterly absurd situation right here where I had to go off and search the dark corners of the Internet to download MP3s of an album I ALREADY OWN. I paid for this album. I have a right to listen to it in whatever form I wish. I do not have the right to share it, so I will not share it. I also will never buy another CD from EMI Music so long as it carries that Copy-Controlled logo on it, and I feel that I will not be alone in this endeavour. I'm sure there are many others out there bemoaning this ridiculous situation and saying the same thing. I'm also sure that some of them will ask themselves why they have to buy the CDs when they're going to have to download the music off of the Internet anyway...
Posted at 11:47 PM
