Saturday, February 02, 2008

Sony: Keep the music you've paid for. For a bit.

The imminent closure of the Sony Connect Music store might be causing some worry to the people who'd thrown their hard-earned cash at the DRMed product. But not worry - Sony has put together an FAQ to help their loyal customers adjust to the new world.

For example, you might be wondering:

What will happen to my library (content I own)?

'Own' as in 'have paid for', of course.

Sony is generous - why, just because they're going out of business, you won't lose the music you've bought...
You will continue to be able to play, manage, and transfer the music in your SonicStage® library and on your ATRAC player. For music purchased via CONNECT, this means you may continue to enjoy it as usual...

Splendid!
...in your current PC configuration in accordance with our terms of use.

Aha! So, having been honest, and paid out for the tracks in accordance with the wishes of the music industry, you get to keep your songs for as long as you can hold off upgrading your computer.

The suspicion is that you might have been better off keeping your money in your pocket, and having access to the tracks forever. Why would you buy a DRMed track in future, if even a bloody record label can't guarantee you'll be able to play them in the future?

[Thanks to Karl T for the link]


2 comments:

Olive said...

Some fucker from Sony actually had the balls to compare this to 8-track when I asked him about it: "Well you know, it's like 8-track. We try out some new technology and the public doesn't bite. Are we supposed to support it for the next 20 years?"

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

Bloody hell, they really will try anything, won't they? Apart from anything, a couple of years ago I had to exercise a degree of restraint because there was a pile of 8track cartridges and a player for sale in a charity shop.

Nobody would expect Sony to still be releasing 8tracks now; but equally, nobody would have expected the 8track cartridges they'd paid for to fall apart as soon as the format was dropped.

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