Before you buy the new Foo Fighters disc
know that the geniuses at RCA have made it unplayable on iPods. I bought the set yesterday and was stoked to move it to my iPod and start listening. I have total confidence it is a terrific album. However, the asshats at RCA figured some anti-piracy trick and made it so you can't load the discs into iTunes. Good move, geniuses, alienating about 10 million rock fans.
So, this space was meant to be me reviewing the new Foo disc... but I can't. I don't use CD players anymore and my iPod isn't good enough for these assholes. Let the record reflect, I don't blame this on the band nor do I cast aspersions on the album. It may be great. I may never know. This is what the manufacturers website said:
Can I transfer MediaMax digital audio files to my iPod? Apple's proprietary technology doesn't support secure music formats other than their own, and therefore the secure music file formats on this disc can't be directly imported into iTunes or iPods.
Nice how they blame it on Apple. However, I have 600 other CDs that went into iTunes with no trouble at all. In fact, I have NEVER had a single Cd problem with iTunes until this disc. God, this is SO frustrating. I mean, the only possibly way I can hear MY new Cd is to download it off Kazaa. Good thinking, RCA.
So tomorrow for lunch, instead of sitting at the park by the office, I have to drive back over to Best Buy to tell them to shove this CD set up their asses.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Sterfish
Wow. I hope we don't see more companies do stuff like this. It's one thing to try and limit CD burning but quite another to purposely lock out the most popular digital audio player out there. That's pathetic. This makes me wonder...is this album actually available on iTunes to buy?
2 - Al Barger
So, let's see. The record company wants you to spend cash money to buy a product you can't use, which is thus inferior to what you can download for free. This copy control nonsense also applies to the new Backstreet Boys CD.
Also, I DO hold the artists responsible for this nonsense. They could refuse to deliver an album if it's going to be screwed with like this, or short of that they could publicly bitch about it. Some public gesture equivalent to Tom Petty's album cover for Hard Promises would be helpful.
3 - DJRadiohead
This is not entirely true. Check out my mini-review here for the lowdown on how to beat the system and rip your songs to your iPod.
4 - Matt
Can the tracks be converted to MP3 format?
Sterfish--I believe I saw it on iTunes last night.
Al--I agree with you. An artist like Foo Fighters certainly has some leverage with their record company to balk at this.
5 - DJRadiohead
Matt, YES THEY CAN BE RIPPED. But listen carefully and read this and hear the gospel.
You MUST do one of the following:
A) DISABLE AUTORUN on your PC.
OR
B) HOLD DOWN THE SHIFT KEY WHEN YOU INSERT THE DISC INTO YOUR COMPUTER.
I chose option B and I am listening to my legally-purchased copy of FF on my iPod right now. I got it to work. If you fail to take one of these two steps, a license may be installed on your computer making the task of ripping the CD more difficult (although still not impossible).
Pass the gospel along!
6 - Tom Johnson
I'm just upset that no one listens to my pleas to not buy this crap. If it's copy-protected and you buy it, you've just told the record industry that you're okay with copy protection and okay with THEM telling YOU how you can use the music you purchased. I stick by my stance: I will not, under any circumstance, knowingly buy a copy-protected album. If everyone did this, the industry would get the point loud and clear - they'd be stuck with thousands and maybe millions of unsellable discs. The other option, which I mention every time this comes up, too, is to buy it, then return it as a faulty disc, and keep doing that so the labels receive a huge crate of "bad" discs (and that's exactly what they are) that they can't do anything with, either.
7 - The Theory
why are you buying a Foo Fighters album in the first place? I mean, seriously...
8 - Tan Hoang
Does that method work on Macs too?
9 - Lono
Because I am a big fan of Dave Grohl, or was. Don't worry, I can't possibly imagine ever purchasing anything from RCA ever again. I caution anyone who listens to music and has a computer to not purchase their products.
gee, making music that young and computer literate people can't use. Way to alienate your target demographic. Everyone under 60 is using computers now. My 7 year old nephew has his own computer.
10 - Mark Saleski
lono, i added a link to this article up in my "stupid" post. (i originally meant to but forgot. i think the anger and amazement made me lose the ole' train of thought)
11 - DJRadiohead
Tom, I agree with you but I have no self control. When I want a new CD... I just can't help myself. They're a drug. I am addicted. =)
12 - Lono
The shift trick didn't work. I mean, it did disable the stupid software that pops up... but it still doesn't record right to iTunes.
as for suggestion one, disable auto run... I have NO idea how to go about that.
I think I may have a way to outsmart it though. I am going to take the discs to work and load them onto Windows Media Player and then onto my 256 meg flash drive. This will split the songs into audio files and seperate out the software bullshit.
Then, I hope to come home and load the tracks from the flash drive onto iTunes.
Yup, that is what I am doing tomorrow night. You'll be out partying with your friends and having a good Friday night. I'll be fighting software, out of principle.
I will make this fucker work. Then, I will return it to Best Buy out of principle. This is because I want it to get all the way back to the band and the manufacturer that people are returning the CD because it doesn't work.
13 - Tan The Man
You stick it to the man!
14 - Timbo
I think the vendors like Best Buy and such should offer replacement discs that don't have all the programming on them.
15 - Tan The Man
Just read on Yahoo! that the DRM is PC-only. My mac is immune.
16 - Temple Stark
Ha ha PC suckers. Sorry, couldn't resist. :-)
Pop-Foo.
17 - Temple Stark
Of course, more accurately, I didn't want to resist.
18 - Warfreak2
Does it seem ironic that this article has not one, but two links to the Amazon where you can buy this CD? =D
I've always thought the whole idea of copy-protection was stupid anyway, I mean, if the music can be heard, it can be copied, even if the only way to do that is to put a microphone in front of your speakers. I can't imagine any situation right now where you would have to go that far; making a 1:1 copy in a hardware-only CD copier (or on Linux or a Mac) will just copy the music, along with any DRM, straight over.
Of course, the real solution is not to buy any music from the Big Four, copy-protected or not: http://www.downhillbattle.org
19 - DJRadiohead
I used the SHIFT trick on my Mac and successfully ripped the Foo Fighters tracks to my iPod.
Be careful about thinking Mac is immune to all copy protection schemes.
Lono, I don't blame you and hope you have better luck.
20 - Victor Plenty
You can see the Amazon links as places to buy the album.
But you can also think of them as letting you see an image of exactly which album you don't want to buy.
The choice is still ours. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.