Anti-iPod CDs selling well --The Courier-Mail

Sue Zeidler in Los Angeles
05aug05
CDs containing new anti-piracy technology are selling well in the US, despite a backlash over their incompatibility with iPods.

Aiming to curb piracy, labels like Sony BMG are rolling out copy-protected albums in the United States, which let users make three exact duplicates of a CD, and store files on a PC in Microsoft's Windows Media format.

Albums include recent releases from the Foo Fighters and Dave Matthews Band.

But the copy-protection bars users from exporting music onto iPods, as Apple's Fairplay software is incompatible with Windows.

"This (Foo Fighters) CD has a copy protection scheme that makes it totally useless to 30 million iPod owners," wrote C. Anderson of Plano, Texas on Amazon.com's customer review link. "How could a band be so stupid as to alienate such a huge percentage of their fans?"

About one-third of the 252 customer reviews of the Foo Fighter CD this week on Amazon, which prominently displays the fact the album is a copy-protected CD, complained about the copy protection.

Record executives said they were continuing talks with Apple to make such CDs compatible with iPods. In the meantime, Sony BMG also released versions of each album to Apple's iTunes service.

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu said it would benefit both Apple and record labels to resolve the issue.

"Apple's the leader in digital music. It doesn't make sense to release too many copy-protected CDs if they're incompatible with iPods. But Apple could also be at risk if these CDs keep selling well," he said.

"It's up to Apple to flip the switch," said one record label executive.

Apple declined to comment on such talks. "We have not announced any plans to license Fairplay technology," Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said.

Meanwhile, record industry officials said the Dave Matthews and Foo Fighters CDs are selling well. "I haven't noticed them selling off par with their past albums. In fact the Foo Fighters' first week was the best week they've ever had," said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts at Billboard.

Since its mid-June release, the Foo Fighters' "In Your Honor, has sold more than 736,000 units, including 23,000 digital copies, consistently ranking at the top of the charts, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Dave Matthews' "Stand Up" has sold 1.1 million units since its May release, including 56,000 digitally.

Other copy-protected albums recently released in the United States include EMI's latest Jermaine Dupri album.

EMI Group spokeswoman Jeanne Meyer cited success with earlier efforts overseas. "Out of 127 million copy protected CDs we've shipped into the market outside of the US and UK, we've had 0.02 percent inquiries of any kind," she said.

Sony BMG, a joint venture between Japan's Sony and Germany's Bertelsmann, said users can get the music onto iPods by transferring files to a PC, burning them to a CD, ripping the tunes to the hard drive and finally transferring them into Apple's iTunes software.

"Aiming to curb piracy, labels like Sony BMG are rolling out copy-protected albums in the United States, ..."

All the more reason NOT to buy these CD's. Over 1/3 of the Amazon reviews are complaining about the copy protection. How is this NOT a bad thing, if you are an artist??

All the more reason for me to continue NOT to get interested in new music. Sorry Foo Fighters and Dave Matthews, but you have MOST CERTAINLY lost a potential customer here. You'll never get a dime from me for anything ever again.

So why are they selling? Or is Billboard just lying again?

Foo Fighters and Dave Matthews 15 minutes of fame ran out a long time ago. The song, best of you is the worst piece of crap ever put out by the Foo Fighters.

Dave Matthews' "Stand Up" has sold 1.1 million units since its May release, including 56,000 digitally.

hmmm we don't seem to be having the impact we desired

We're having an impact of any kind?

As I said before, The few of you who don't buy new stuff doesn't matter much. If you want to make a dent, give cd-r's away of this new crap. Convince your friends and even your enemies of the virtue of cd-r.

Now that I know for a fact these cd's are specifically "copy protected"; I'll have to obtain one of them. Since The Foo Fighters isn't on the top of my list, I guess I'll have to go with the Dave Mathews Band. Perhaps I should send their record label a cd-r copy of the audio and an individual cd-r copy of an HHI released mp3 version; with a specific, get fucked note to Dave Mathews.

@Jefrystube - I think so. Look at the 200+ "don't buy copy protected CDs" posts at amazon by angry fans:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0009HLDFU/qid=1123443036/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_sbs_1/104-0901722-3404753?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

The word is getting out. Thank You boycott-RIAA!

)

I was able to acquire a loaner cd of the foo fighters double cd set. It installs a hidden driver, setup to run as a service under win nt/xp. With the driver installed, efforts to rip ANY audio cds will corrupt the resulting .wav file. This damn driver is not limited to the cd it installs with. However, I had to manually install the driver to test it; My machines aren't allowed to auto run anything.

The driver is neat in the sense, it's not dependant in an album. You could install this thing onto anybodies machine and prevent them from ripping any audio cds. So from a programming standpoint, it's nice.

And, the copy protection isn't so bad in this sense; If you don't install the driver, the cd rips fine. Really. The cd itself isn't encrypted, using funny tracks; It's a hybrid cd. Multi session, computer track and redbook audio. If the record companies wish to employ this sort of copy protection, I don't mind it. It's voluntary protection in my opinion.

if this method of copy protection takes off, i bet there will be several slightly different types that do not work together. the complete lack of standards in music copy protection will mean that after buying and listening to 8 different CDs on your computer, you could be running 8 different background processes form 8 different copy protection schemes that may or may not work together and may or may not be written well.

if this method of copy protection takes off, i bet there will be several slightly different types that do not work together. the complete lack of standards in music copy protection will mean that after buying and listening to 8 different CDs on your computer, you could be running 8 different background processes form 8 different copy protection schemes that may or may not work together and may or may not be written well.

sorry for the double post.

sorry for the double post.

"In Your Honor" isnt as good as "One By One" in my opinion despite having 2 discs. I heard them both from WinMX first and bought "One By One" with the limited edition DVD (which was absolute crap anyway) but I doubt I will be buying the latest for some time

Whether we blame the bands or not, I dunno... I guess we can with Foo Fighters as I'm sure they just use BMG for distribution, dont they?

Interesting computer analysis, thanks. I love the Foo's so I'm buying the limited edition with the bonus DVD. Call me crazy, but I play my cd's in a cd player. : )

Oh, and f-u to napsters ghost. The Foo's have been around 10 years and Dave Matthews even longer and they still sell millions of albums and concert tickets. That's 15 minutes of fame? What a dumbass.

MrOop,

My cds that I purchase are only used once. Otherwise, they are stored in the cd case. The only time they are used as I said, is when I first opened it to put it into the computers. These cds are in mint condition, not a single blemish on any of them. They've only been ripped one time.

If I want to listen to one of them in the truck or in the house, I'll either burn a cd and toat it around, and/or fire up the box with the mp3 collection on it, patch it thru the stereo and walla; instant digital jukebox. No risk of losing/damaging an original cd that I paid for.

That driver I was speaking of is pretty easy to remove. I've kept a sample to play with it more later. Useful little program, it could be.

Poor moop, can't come up with an argument why the Foo Fighters are any good. Millions of albums and concert tickets? Says who? You? The corporate piggy who tries to keep selling bands that are manufactured by big business. Next you're going to tell me Ashley Simpson is the coolest singer ever. Sorry brown noser but no one here takes you seriously.

hehe ya right i have cd decrypter
i just rip to 320 kb mp3 and bam instant dvd mp3 addition...
and i already dled foo fighters new one off the net...^^ someone already got past that lil ol copyright....
sorry but i dont buy nazi like enfored cds....and never will

dubbsakk,

cd decryptor? That's an oxymoron, Audio cd's aren't encrypted. You rip to 320k mp3? Using what codec? Sigh, nevermind...lil ol copyright? Man, you should withdraw some of that l33t wannabe.

"My cds that I purchase are only used once."

I know some other people who do the same thing.

"Poor moop, can't come up with an argument why the Foo Fighters are any good."

Hey doofi, you said "15 minutes of fame". That comment does not speak to quality, it speaks to popularity. So I responded with sales figures. Are you that dumb that you don't even know what you are talking about? Sheesh!

MrOop,

"Hey doofi, you said "15 minutes of fame". That comment does not speak to quality, it speaks to popularity. So I responded with sales figures. Are you that dumb that you don't even know what you are talking about? Sheesh!"

I think it's a dumbness factor here. Honestly. For some reason, this site tends to attract people who don't know the first thing about technology; let alone the recording industry. It's blind following the blind here. Do you recall back a week or so ago, where various individuals couldn't copy/paste some website? So they assumed the site was protected in some way; not that they simply weren't cut/pasting properly.

"For some reason, this site tends to attract people who don't know the first thing about technology; let alone the recording industry"

I swear it's true. This site attracts so many just plain dumb people. I check out 2 or 3 other music boards and the level of intelligence is so much higher than at this board, where so many stupid and/or ignorant people reside.

You're right moopy Foo Fighters are anything but quality. They pass off big piles of shit for music. Just listen to Dave Grohl attempt to sing on Best of you. Sounds like he got his balls caught in his zipper, or you bit him while going down on him.

"You're right moopy Foo Fighters are anything but quality."

I didn't say the Foo Fighters are anything but quality. Jeebus you are stupid. You are simply unable to follow a train of thought or even understand what you yourself write. How sad. I'd feel sorry for you if you weren't such a douchebag.

Poor, poor moopy need a tissue before you cry you worthless pile of shit?