Friday, January 4, 2008

Backdoor Sony music MP3s


Sony's music download service uses the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, not MP3. So it is interesting to find this bit of advice on the download site about how to take the copy-protected Sony music and transfer it to an iPod, an operation that is the equivalent, after a bit of work on the users' part, to supporting an MP3 format free of digital rights management.

"Attention iPod users:

Our download service provides files in the WMA music format or the WMV video format, which is not supported by Apple Macintosh computers. To use your music with an iPod, simply follow the steps below:

1. Save each downloaded song to your PC
2. Burn a music CD (in CDA file format)
3. Import the music from the CD into iTunes
4. Update your iPod"

If this forecast by Strategy Analytics is correct, most of the action in the music download business, exclusive of phone-specific ringtones, will not be generated by mobile service providers.

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