BuyMusic Customers Can’t Transfer Songs To MP3 Players

July 28th, 2003 at 3:00 PM - News by Bryan Chaffin

Off to a rocky start, BuyMusic (BM) has a new set of problems according to an article from USA Today. The newest problem to beset the would-be iTMS competitor is that customers who have downloaded songs from the service canit transfer them to the MP3 players that BM says it supports. From USA Today:

[In] an example of the technological trickiness involved in offering users the freedom they desire while giving music labels the protections they demand, early customers have found they canit transfer the tunes they buy on BuyMusic.com to digital portables.

The Mac-only iTunes has won raves for ease of use, both in burning CDs and transferring songs to Appleis iPod players. But BuyMusicis tracks have started out as unplayable, even on portables lent to the press in a promotional blitz.

"Weire working on this," says Buy.comis Scott Blum, who says the company will have the glitch fixed today and that customers who have bought tracks will receive an e-mail offering free re-downloads.

The issue with MP3 players is most likely a DRM issue. BM uses Windows Media Player for its files, and it is WMP that handles the DRM, which is why it will be necessary for these customers to download new versions of the file.

Thereis more information in the full article at USA Todayis Web site. TMOis forum members are discussing this story in the TMO forums.