We went out on a short shopping trip yesterday afternoon. We bought some baby stuff (Fiona's first dress) and some books (Tricia Sullivan's Maul, amongst others). I would also have picked up a copy of Sarah McLachlan's new album, Afterglow, but her record company seems not to have released it in CD format. Bummer! Instead, they've released it on some kind of shiny CD-sized disc that can only be played on "Home stereo equipment" and PCs running certain specific versions of Windows. Bummer! So I bought Start Something by the Lostprophets instead.
Yes, there are ways of getting around copy-protected discs and DRM-locked music files. But standing in the shop yesterday afternoon I was struck by an overwhelming wave of apathy. I love Sarah McLachlan's music, and I would love to listen to her new album, but I really can't be arsed trying to figure out how to get the songs off of the copy-locked CD and into iTunes. Because that's the only way I listen to new music nowadays: we don't have a stereo in our living room any more, we just have my PC and some speakers. The CD might work in my car's CD player, but that's not much use if I want to listen to the disc while reading a book on my sofa.
I feel like a PS2 owner who wants to play Halo but can't, because it's an XBox exclusive title. Is this the future of music? Platform exclusives, and platform incompatibility? If so, it sucks.
kristine
You've got my attention now, because I always hate to think that someone would miss out on the joy of Sarah-music. ;)
I listened to my Sarah CD on my computer before sticking it in the dying CD player in our office room. And I ripped it without any problems (using CDex: http://www.cdex.n3.net/ ). But I am using Windows, so maybe that's why it worked for me?
So what indicates that its copy protected on the CD? I see a "Compact Disc" logo on the inside of the plastic case.