Did you buy from walmart? well DRM is going away, but what about the files you legally own with DRM? well according to wal-mart you should "back-them up to a CD-R.

so back them up, as it sounds to me that those you do have wont play after October 9th 2008.

"Important Information About Your Digital Music Purchases


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.



Walmart Music Team"

Maybe allowing independents access to the store would truly make it better, will we ever have a fair playing field? or even one we can play on?

I'm glad to see that WalMart is calling for DMCA violation as a solution to DRM.

yeah nice hu?

I have about 4 songs from them (I know I know...)
but DJing Weddings and getting oddball song request from the bride, well you go the cheapest route!

They may have been burnt to a CD I have no clue what they were, I have over a TB of mp3s! (90% indie! and duplicated LOL)
what I am afraid is that my DJ partner has them on the biz. laptop and uses Napster to play them going to be an issue I think. but then again I think those 3 or 4 songs have only been used the one time ...

Believe it or not if the wedding or party host are up for it I try to play as much RIAA free music as I can! being that we have a lot of country weddings LOL, its hard to find good country indie (fins a ton that suits me fine Alt/country and such. And many many covers I will play from indie bands if they are up to par with the Original or better

See how they reward you for spending your hard earned money? By telling you to do with your files as I have said from the getgo. What they aren't telling you is this: Once that material is burned to cd-r, it's downsampled again. If you rip your tracks from the burn you just made and encode them, you degrade them even further.

The real solution? DRM free mp3s you can make yourself.

Hmmm, I would think burning to CD would involve upsampling, not downsampling.

Its a lossy codec, how do you intend to upsample what isn't present?