S60 Open to new features

I purchased about 10 songs from Elisa's past emma.fm service. They're in WMA format with copy protection. Because the service doesn't exist anymore, I can't listen to these songs anymore either.

My player tries to go online and verify the DRM sertificate or something. Nevertheless these songs can't be played at all.

Needless to say, those were the first 10 and last 10 DRM songs I will probably ever buy. I still prefer buying CDs and ripping them.

I do not buy copy protected "CDs". I do like online music stores, but they have to sell music without DRM (like AllofMP3.com). Then again these stores are in other ways a bit questionable. I want the artist to get his or hers salary too.

Just sell plain, good ol' MP3s without DRM. They must be good-quality and have properly set ID3 tags, and have artwork embedded in the ID3 tags as well. It should be very easy to buy them and download them, and also to re-download them without any extra fee, from any computer.

It bit like what Warp Records does with their online shop, bleep.com, but of course there must be a large catalogue.

Also, it'd be good to be able to download as MP3 and as other different popular formats as well.

PS Did you mean VHS? WHS is a newsagent in the UK!

I have never bought DRM protected songs either, and probably never will, unless the terms change radically.

I'm sure the music industry will understand the message eventually. Or maybe it doesn't, in which case other players might disrupt some of the current players to irrelevance.

ps. have you tried www.pandora.com? I'm an addict :)

I don't think there is a single perfect solution here, and I'm not convinced that we need one. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to find and hear music, so you don't need to purchase DRM-protected music if you don't want to. Remember that this whole digital music space is still very new and very small (less than 10% of total music revenue), so there will be lots of experimentation for a while. Eventually, the market will decide which solutions win.

In the case of iTunes, Apple has clearly created such a compelling offering that many people are willing to accept the restrictions in exchange for the perceived benefits. That's their choice.

I personally get much of my music from eMusic.com (US and UK only, I'm afraid). They sell high-quality, un-encrypted MP3 files, mostly from independent labels and less-popular genres; no problem for me, since I'm a jazz fan. It's cheaper than iTunes, too.

the issues are really not about whether something is DRM-protected or not and certainly not CD quality sound Vs the quality available to a mobile device. To me it's more about the music industry making music more affordable so people can enjoy what they want to hear. the next few months will reveal new and more affordable ways to enjoy music. let's have some patience while the demands of the new force the ways of the old to change. DRM is important at the moment for the livelihoods of artists and all those who work for them to get the music into our ears. maybe what we should demand is that vendors put the effort in to produce quality sound and more available memory and the music labels find ways to lower the costs.

Dannie,
I totally agree that for wide audience quality of mp3 is enough. For me it's not. Knowing it's less than CD destroys the experience :-) For mobile certainly mp3 is enough but if I buy something I'd like to have quality version (for home hifi usage) and possibility to make or have a compact version for mobile.

I think there was major improvement in audio quality when transition from LP to CD happened (although some disagree), and I would like to see similar development now. Unfortunately industry has moved to other direction. Delivery of quality stuff would be now possible over fixed broadband. Super CD was planned and nothing happened. Anyway paying full price and having worse quality than before is showstopper to me. Price like 1$ is not a problem if the product is filling certain requirements.

Tommi,
Yes I have tried Pandora. Nice service indeed.

I rip my cd's and transfer it to my phone with music manager.just for fun, i downloaded a song from airtel live service of airtel india.i regret to say the quality was worst i had heard.24kbps in mp3 format.even song length was cut.Needless to say,i deleted song on second day.and this was the end of drm protected songs for me.I straightaway proceeded to put un protected mp3 on phone.

DRM is good if it lowers the cost of the product we purchase, I mean if I pay 25 to 35 pence for a track and even if it gets lost in a player mishap I don't mind purchasing it again.

I'm mostly into electronic (dance, house, etc.) music so not too anal about quality, 128 to 192 kbps is good enough for me as long as the master was of good quality. I just need super bass and punch.

What we need to satisfy everyone (labels, artists, users) is biometric drm. You can play it on any device as long as you are around. Woudln't that be cool.

Boom