BuyMusic.com was launched by Buy.com as their answer to Apple's iTunes Music Store. The prices are cheaper - but apparently the restrictions are tighter. The music d/l format is windows media, though - which makes it a much more compatible service with the empeg than the iTMS.

But it's probably got DRM stuff on it, which, IIRC, doesn't work with the empeg.

Oh, and, BTW:

In order to take full advantage of BuyMusic.com's offerings you must be on a Windows Operating System using Internet Explorer version 5.0 or higher.

That's as far as I can get. I can't even read about it.

I just had a post all typed up about this and then saw that someone had beaten me to the punch!

But it's probably got DRM stuff on it, which, IIRC, doesn't work with the empeg.

As near as I can tell from the website, SDMI compliance is required for using the wma's (is that the same as DRM?). So what does this mean for the Empeg? Can I transfer them or not? I checked out the FAQ but didn’t find anything about SDMI. I did manage to run across this thread, from which I gather that the Empeg won’t be able to play these files. Is that a correct assumption?

I’d be very interested in checking out one of these services, but I’d want to make sure I can listen to these files on my favorite music device, otherwise there’s no point!

Could unfuck possibly help? It likely can't, but I'm not sure.

All unfuck does is decode it to PCM and reencode it to WMA without DRM.

So, yeah, it would work, but it's far from ideal.

SDMI compliance is required for using the wma's (is that the same as DRM?).

No, it's not. SDMI (secure digital music initiative) is all about keeping track of the generation number of a copy. You can make a single digital copy of a copyrighted track, but you cannot copy a copy. For example, DAT won't digitally output a non-original copyrighted track. It might be even more restrictive than this -- we last looked at this stuff for the Central.

DRM (digital rights management) is about managing the rights of the distributor of a piece of music. It usually implies that the music is encrypted in some way -- it wouldn't be much use without it -- and allows for the distributor to put all kinds of restrictions on the content. Example restrictions might be: binding the content so that it can only be played on a particular device; putting an expiry date on the content, so that you have to pay a subscription; putting a maximum play count on the content; etc..

So what does this mean for the Empeg?

If they use DRM (particularly MS DRM), it almost certainly means that you can't use them on the empeg.

Edit: correct SDMI expansion

is that the same as DRM?

Yeah, more or less.

DRM == Digital Rights Management (interestingly, Microsoft refers to it as ``personal rights management'' within WMP, incorrectly implying that it provides personal rights, instead of that they've been removed by MS.)

SDMI == Secure Digital Music Initiative

They're two different ways to prevent users from using their music as they see fit. DRM works really well since no one is really interested in WMA to begin with. SDMI doesn't, as they can't be bothered to learn how encryption works -- it seems more of a manufacturer SIG than a technical group.

I think you might mean SCMS (serial copy management system), which is what's in DATs, Minidiscs, CD players, etc.

SDMI was a consortium trying to make a single industry-wide (an possibly very onerous) DRM complete with watermarking to nab people who did the decode-reencode trick.

Not suprisingly, it fell apart. This wasn't until after lots of lavish meetings at far flung (and usually hot) resorts, as far as I heard.

Hugo

This wasn't until after lots of lavish meetings at far flung (and usually hot) resorts, as far as I heard.

Damn, how did you manage to miss out on those? Couldn't you have at least pretended to be interested in bringing SDMI to one of the Rio products?

Apparently it's not a complete failure if it's what BuyMusic requires.

*sigh* I suppose instantaneous legal music will remain just a dream, at least for my empeg and I.

You're right. My bad.

Just as an update in case anyone else's interested:

Could unfuck possibly help? It likely can't, but I'm not sure.

It doesn't work with the drm version used by BuyMusic. I figured $0.99 wasn't too much to blow on an experiment, besides I can always burn to a CD and re-rip myself. Waste of a CD though . . .

Use a CD-RW disc.

Use a CD-RW disc.

Or better yet a disk image/loopback file system.

-Mike

Or better yet, a program like Total Recorder.

I didn't know one could do that with audio tracks..

Cheers

Or better yet, a program like Total Recorder.

An image is quicker because you don't have to listen to the audio in realtime. Just burn to an image as if you where burning to a CD and then rip back from the image as mp3. Both operations are only limited by your CPU/hard drive speed. Of course you still lose quality due to the re-compression.

-Mike

Edit: I should clarify that I haven't actually done this, I have been told that it works with Apple's protected music files using Toast to create the disk image.

Shoot, I could've saved you the coins FB. Due at least in part to their previous (v6?) DRM's "unfucking," M$ firmed it up for WM Series 9; hence, the big push to upgrade.

An image is quicker because you don't have to listen to the audio in realtime.

Total recorder also has a feature where you don't have to listen to it in real time. Streams to disk as fast as the application can send it. Whether or not this actually works depends on the player application, but it has worked in some of the cases I've tried it in. If you've ever seen WinAmp use its Disk Writer plug in to convert an MP3 to a WAV at a rate faster than realtime, then you'll know the kind of thing I'm talking about.