Downloading music files from walmart.com

Mel Culbreath · From: Waynesville, NC, USA

I went to walmart.com to try and download some music ($.88 per song). Before paying for the songs I wanted to download I decided to download the sample test song to see if I ran into problems.

When I tried to download the sample a window popped up that said:

"The owner of the content you are trying to access requires you to first upgrade some of the Microsoft digital rights management (DRM) components on your computer. This increases the level of protection provided by DRM."

I clicked on the "Learn More" button and it took me to a website with this information:

"Security Upgrade
Owners of secure content may also require you to upgrade some of the DRM components on your computer before accessing their content. When you attempt to play such content, Windows Media Player will notify you that a DRM Upgrade is required and then ask for your consent before the DRM Upgrade is downloaded (third party playback software may do the same). If you decline the upgrade, you will not be able to access content that requires the DRM Upgrade; however, you will still be able to access unprotected content and secure content that does not require the upgrade. If you accept the upgrade, Windows Media Player will connect to an Internet site operated by Microsoft and will send a unique identifier along with a Windows Media Player security file. This unique identifier does not contain any personal identifiable information. Microsoft will then replace the security file with a customized version of the file that contains your unique identifier. This increases the level of protection provided by DRM."

What does this increased level of protection protect me from?

I realize I am paranoid where Microsoft is concerned, but should I download the DRM components, or maybe go to another site (if there is one) that would not require me to download additional stuff.

Thanks for your opinions.

Mel

sonbone · From: Waxahachie, TX

When you download a song from Walmart, you are able to play the song on up to 3 computers and also burn the song to a maximum of 10 CDs. The DRM update is just so that Windows Media Player understands these privileges correctly. I don't really think there is any need for concern. I updated my Windows Media Player about a month ago and have downloaded a few songs from Walmart and have had no problems, so my opinion is that it's safe.

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http://geocities.com/sonbone1
sonbone@geocities.com

Marc Friedland · From: Fort Collins, CO

Mel,
I also recently had downloaded songs from Walmart but was not able to play or copy them. Except for reading emails and posts on the Steel Guitar Forum, I'm quite the amateur in knowing about computers. I had a computer savy friend help me do a windows update to my XP system. After that I was able to play the songs with Windows Media Player and after playing each song at least one time, I was able to highlight each song, right click and then copy all the songs to a CD. I believe the reason I needed to play each song before copying had something to do with recognizing I had paid for licensing rights to those songs. Your equipment might be different than mine, but if it's similar, hopefully this information will be helpful. -- Marc

Jeff Agnew · From: Dallas, TX

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Ron Page · From: Penn Yan, NY USA

This has got to be the way of the future. Next I think you'll see Wal-Mart offering subscriptions; I guess Apple and others already do. I bet Wal-Mart will combine downloads with offers on blank media an cases. In the mean time .88/tune seems fair. I haven't checked out their selection, but I presume I could download entire albums-- the $9 CD is appealing to me.

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HagFan

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

ps - Why they want to protect the crappy sound of WMA and MP3 files is beyond me anyway. If you want the real deal, buy the CD!

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Believe it or not, the future of television (i.e. video entertainment) is to get rid of the RGB/Sync information pickoff point in the data stream. The NTSC signal, containing this info, is what your tv picks out of the cable or "over the air" signal and is used to put the picture on your screen, and used to put the info onto a VCR tape. If the information goes totally digital to an LCD display, digital rights management will let the suppliers sell you viewing of individual TV shows. No more VCRs.

Long Live NTSC !!!!

I'm with b0b on the mp3's. MP3's are like an audio thumbnail....

[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 16 August 2004 at 11:42 AM.]

Ron Page · From: Penn Yan, NY USA

So are the downloads not of CD quality? I assumed I'd be downloading the full WAV file, but I guss that would be about 30MB per tune. Well then we're going to need more bandwidth so that we don't mess with the sound.

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HagFan

[This message was edited by Ron Page on 16 August 2004 at 01:51 PM.]

sonbone · From: Waxahachie, TX

The quality of the .wma files from Walmart is not great even for a compressed format, many .mp3's that are encoded at a higher bit rate sound much better. I don't think the quality is anywhere near "CD". However, if you're like me and need to get copies of songs to learn for your band, it's a great way to do that. Beats shelling out the bucks for a CD that you don't really care for and only need one or at the most two tunes off of anyway. Great tool for learning songs, but not really for getting high quality music.

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Right. If you need to learn a song, it's hard to argue with an 88 cent download. But shelling out $9 for a sub-par CD, and then printing the tray card myself on my inkjet? I'd rather go the distance and have something real.

Someday these kids will grow up and realize that their downloaded music collection is worthless, and my vinyl music collection is priceless.

A young friend of mine is a Phish fan. He downloaded their latest CD from ITunes. I bought the same album at Sam Goody for 3 bucks more, and got a "making of" DVD in the package. He's kicking himself already.

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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Great article on the future of Digital Rights Management in Monday 08/16/04 Wall Street Journal, Section B, Page 1

The New Digital Media:
You Might Have It,
But Not Really Own It

By NICK WINGFIELD
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 16, 2004; Page B1

Buying music used to be simple: You coughed up $14 or so for a CD, and as long as you didn't bootleg it or charge crowds of people to listen to it, the music was yours.

The Internet and other technologies are changing all that, opening up a slew of new options for purchasing entertainment, be it music or movies or games. That's a good thing.

The not-so-good thing is that in the next few years, the sheer number and complexity of those new options are likely to bewilder many consumers. You may no longer be able to "own a movie" or "own a CD," at least in the sense those phrases have been used.

Instead, you will merely have "rights" to the content, enforced by technology. Those rights might change over time, even at the whim of the music or movie company you get them from.

The technology allowing all this is called digital-rights management, or DRM. It's a kind of invisible software lock securely bolted onto a song or movie. Being software, it's a very flexible sort of lock. A music label, for example, might let you download a song free and then listen to it for a day, but then require you to pay up to keep on listening.

For a taste of what DRM might bring, check out Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, which sells songs for 99 cents.

ITunes comes with a DRM system that prevents customers from playing those songs on more than five computers, or burning more than seven identical lists of songs onto CDs. (Before you can play a song on a sixth computer, you need to use the DRM software to "de-authorize" it from one of the first five machines.)

Of course, no such technical limits exist on normal music CDs, though recording companies, especially in Europe, are experimenting with restrictions.

Some iTunes users are grumbling. In June, science-fiction writer Cory Doctorow gave a talk critical of DRM technology in which he related how he hit Apple's limit on the number of computers he could play his music on -- three machines at the time.

One computer was in the shop, another was at his parents' house and a third was a defective machine he had returned to Apple -- without first remembering to de-authorize his music on it so he could play it on another machine. As a result, Mr. Doctorow said he was unable to listen to hundreds of dollars worth of music.

Apple says such problems aren't common, especially since the company upped its computer limit to five in April.

But that change itself was a lesson in the power of DRM: Apple's increase was retroactive, and applied to all songs, not just those purchased after the change took effect.

In this case, Apple gave users more liberal rights. (It also curbed some types of CD burning, but the change didn't apply to previously purchased music.) However, there's nothing preventing Apple from making its DRM retroactively more restrictive -- though the company says that's unlikely.

Apple set up the iTunes DRM as a way of getting the big labels -- badly burned by the original Napster -- comfortable with music online. It deserves credit for helping legalize digital music: iTunes has had more than 100 million downloads.

And even with the restrictions, iTunes customers more or less "own" their music once they've bought it. By contrast, consumers only "rent" music at subscription services like RealNetworks's Rhapsody, which typically charge a $10 or so monthly fee for playing as much music as customers want.

The catch: Rhapsody subscribers can play their songs only on their PCs, not portable audio players, and only as long as they keep paying their monthly bills. That's the main reason these "rental" sites haven't done as well as iTunes. (By the end of this year, a new version of Microsoft's DRM will allow subscription users to transfer content to portable players.)

It's not just Internet music that's getting more complicated. Most of today's movie DVDs contain restrictions that prevent users from copying them, or playing them in a different geographic region from where they are bought.

But Hollywood studios, along with technology and consumer electronic companies, are working on a new generation of DVDs that will, in addition to holding more data for high-definition movies, also have a much more flexible DRM.

As a result, different studios might end up imposing different DVD restrictions. You may, for instance, be able to make a copy of the "Toy Story 4" DVD for your laptop -- but not do the same thing with "Charlie's Angels 5."

Those variations will likely require some form of labeling on DVDs so consumers will know what they're getting, according to companies involved in planning them.

Alan Davidson, associate director of the civil liberties group Center for Democracy and Technology, says he isn't opposed to DRM, but worries consumers may not understand what rights come with content they purchase. "DRM underscores the point that consumers are going to have to become a lot more sophisticated about what they're buying," he says.

[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 17 August 2004 at 12:00 PM.]

Ron Page · From: Penn Yan, NY USA

Offsetting Davidson's concerns, I think the competitive market forces are going to ensure that consumers benefit tremendously from this technology. He points this out, by example, but his conclusion seems focused on concern in his headline.

I'm more concerned about the quality of the sound. I want music that sounds like CD's not like an FM radio, or worse.

b0b, I really like the way you turned the phrase on worthless and priceless. That makes complete cents, err I mean sense.

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HagFan

PS: I got over not owning my cars a lot of leases ago.

[This message was edited by Ron Page on 17 August 2004 at 01:43 PM.]

Wayne Carver · From: Martinez, Georgia, USA

I'm with you Bob, I collect vinyl and CD's. To me they are useless without the original jackets with the credits, liner notes, etc.
My brother-in-law and probably alot of other people just stick all their cd's in one carry-case and throw the original stuff away.
The only music I download would be just a song to hear what a band sounds like in case I want to buy their CD.

Mel Culbreath · From: Waynesville, NC, USA

Thanks for all the very interesting feedback. After reading your comments I think I will forget downloading from wal-mart.com

Mel

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