Wal-Mart reveals the problem with DRM
When Wal-Mart decided to enter the digital music market, it was seen as a great boon for consumers, mainly because the company undercut Apple iTunes. When it later decided to go DRM-free, consumers were even happier. But there’s now a problem, as Wal-Mart is shutting the original DRM server.
How do you currently obtain new music? On physical formats from a record store; via a DRM-encumbered online service such as Apple iTunes; or from a torrent site? If you are one of the millions to use iTunes or a similar service, then you may want to reconsider your choices, or risk losing your whole music collection when the whims of the company you deal with suddenly change.
This is the current situation with Wal-Mart, who entered the digital music business in August of 2007. At the time, the company were selling Digital Rights Management-enabled music files, the reason being to prevent the songs from being copied to other computers and mp3 players.
Then, in February, 2008, Wal-Mart had a change of heart, probably because it saw the writing on the wall for DRM music. It therefore started selling DRM-free music files, with a goal in mind that would soon see the service completely DRM-free. That day is now here, but to fully make the transition, Wal-Mart has decided, in its infinite wisdom, to pull the plug on the DRM server.
The news was leaked to Boing Boing by an unhappy customer who received the following email from the Walmart Music Team on Friday.
We hope you are enjoying the increased music quality/bitrate and the improved usability of Walmart’s MP3 music downloads. We began offering MP3s in August 2007 and have offered only DRM (digital rights management) -free MP3s since February 2008. As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site.
If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer. This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free.
Beginning October 9, we will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com. If you do not back up your files before this date, you will no longer be able to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash. Your music and video collections will still play on the originally authorized computer.
Thank you for using Walmart.com for music downloads. We are working hard to make our store better than ever and easier to use.
A nice, friendly note informing customers of a slight change to proceedings, I’m sure you’ll agree. But the problem, as Wal-Mart itself admits, is that after the DRM server gets closed on October 9th, those files will then become pretty much useless.
They’ll still play fine on the computer you downloaded them to, but if that machine goes down, you’re screwed. And don’t even think about transferring the files to another device as that’s what the DRM is there to prevent in the first place.
This is a bizarre decision to make. For starters, why shut the server down now? If DRM files haven’t been sold since February, then why does it even need touching? By taking the server offline, and with relatively short notice, Wal-Mart is forcing its customers to back up their whole collection on to CD. Which really makes the whole point of downloading music null and void in the first place.
It’s no wonder more and more people are using torrents to download their music, as well as games, movies, applications etc. At least by going that route, you are guaranteed of not having to deal with DRM issues, and the whims of companies who could go out of business at a moment’s notice, especially in the current economic climate.
As Spore shows, DRM does nothing to combat piracy whatsoever. It just ends up annoying consumers to the point at which they decide to take action.
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September 29th, 2008
Isn’t it interesting how one by one the DRM servers go down. Who ARE the fools that have been buying into such offerings??? I’d consider Apple the most stable of all of ‘em and there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell I’d buy any DRM’d music from even them!