Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Loo's first experience with DRM

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About a month ago, Laura received a bunch of free-download coupons for the iTunes store. After she downloaded a few songs she was eager to try them out. She said, "OK, let's put them on my phone (LG Chocolate)" I said, "sorry, no can do. You'd need an iPod to do that." I won't buy an iPod, but that's another story.

She asks me why she can't put it on her phone. I say, "That's DRM for ya." She says, "wha?" I repeat, "DRM." She continues to look at me with a blank stare.
She says, "What the hell? I just 'bought' these songs. How am I supposed to listen to them?"
I said, "You can listen to them on my computer."
She says, "I don't want to listen to them on my computer, I want to listen to them on my phone!"
Then I mention the burn-rip-transfer work-around. She was fine with that.

I think she was ok with the work-around, because she/we don't buy music (especially @ $.99 per song) online) very often. Most of the CDs I get these days come from Lala.

I think she represents a very common demographic. People want their music where & how they want it; and are usually willing to jump through a few hoops to get it that way.

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