Dave Matthews Band tells users an iPod workaround for its CD

August 19, 2005

As some of the major record labels are introducing copy protection into many of the the albums they release, apparently not all artists are happy with its listeners not being able to use their music was they would like. The Dave Matthews Band has decided to provide its listeners with a way to get around the DRM on its latest album "Stand Up" in order to transfer their CD to an iPod.

The method is the same as Sony BMG's iPod work around for Windows Users. While MediaMax is designed in a way such that when its software makes a CD copy, this copy is also protected. However, if one exports their music as WMA and then uses Windows Media Player to burn the WMA tracks, this recorded CD can be ripped using iTunes to make iPod compatible tracks. Apple users are unaffected by this copy protection and can rip their CD in iTunes as with any unprotected CD.

The Dave Matthews Band thinks Apple is the one to blame for this issue, since iPods are not compatible with WMA tracks or copy protected CDs and Apple will not license out its FairPlay DRM technology that enable record labels to offer iPod compatible DRM protected tracks. Dave Matthews Band even encourages its listeners to use Apple's feed back to ask for a simpler solution

For once, it's Mac users who are free to pop a shiny new CD into their computers without fear of it bringing down the entire system or becoming stuck in the optical drive. Windows users, however, are getting the shaft this time if they want to copy the Dave Matthews Band "Stand Up" CD to their iTunes Music Library and onto their iPod, due to the disc's copy protection which effectively locks it into Windows Media Player 9.0 and higher.

Don't fret, though. DMB has posted a few tips to help PC users circumvent the restrictions. It's simple really... you just have to agree to an alternate End User License Agreement and burn a CD of the tracks from within Windows Media Player. Once you have this duplicate CD, you can rip the tracks from that CD into iTunes, much like Mac users often do to circumvent Protected AAC restrictions.

It would be nice if other artists who care about their listeners could to the same. Then again, chances are that the music labels may prevent its artists from doing this in their contract. While the record labels think that offering a limited number of fair copies and playback compatibility in pretty much any CD player will make consumers feel more comfortable with DRM, they are forgetting about the majority of consumers who have iPods or other portable audio devices that are not compatible with copy-protected CDs or its DRM.

Feel free to discuss and find out more about copy protection in our CD & DVD Copy Protection forum.

Source: The Unofficial Apple Weblog