Sonos - music from the iTunes Music Store
by Volker Weber
From the Sonos Forums:
So I just purchased a SONOS system over the weekend. The install was easy and I was up and running in a hour. Most of my music is in I-Tunes. What I can't figure out is all the music I have "uploaded" from CD's shows on my SONOS system but songs I have purchased on-line via I-Tunes does not register. Is there some trick to make them play?
You know where this is going, right? Here is a customer who paid for his music. His music is locked up by DRM and he can't play it where he wants. He just learns that he paid for an inferior product: Compressed music that he cannot play on anything not made my Apple. Customers is locked in with money he has invested.
Repeat after me: DRM is bad for the customer.
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Comments
Just as SynapseAttack said there are some strings attached to the music we buy from the iTunes store.
I have heard though, that if we could only make a CD out of these music files and then rip that CD into iTunes, if that will work? (wink-wink)
Today a quote from 2002 from Steve Jobs makes the round on several blogs:
"If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own," (Source: http://www.macworld.com/news/2002/03/04/jobs/)
Today that sounds completely different. :-(
Steve had to change his tune (at least in public): he needed the record companies on side if he was going to make the iTunes music store a reality.
Ben, this is not about record companies. It is about customer lock-in. Apple could license their DRM-scheme. But they chose not to.
It hurts the customer. And whatever hurts the customer, will fire back. There is no if, only a when. I just had one case where somebody bought for $500 from the iTMS and now learned he needs to burn 50 CDs to get full access to the music he paid for. He also stopped buying from the iTMS.
Burning a CD and re-ripping decreases the quality even further and the iTMS downloads are already bad enough
I agree Volker, maybe you can shed some light on why i can play some music on Sonos i have purchased from itunes, & some i can't? I'm assuming they're not all locked... in that case WHY?
It's really frustrating that i have access to a tiny portion of the music that i have bought, to use in my own home.
This is problery a good reason why you should read the terms carfully........If you can decipher them.
Very simple: there is a difference between "iTunes" and "iTunes Plus". The regular iTunes tracks are crippled with DRM, the Plus tracks are not. There are several ways to remove the DRM, the best way is to burn to regular CDs and re-rip them to MP3. You don't have to waste CDs if you use a virtual CD drive.
