I was buying some music the other day, as I had got a gift certificate for quite a bit to spend in the music store. I had heard the latest Coldplay album should be great, so I decided I should listen to it to see what it was. The headphones fit snugly around my ears as the sales woman put the CD in the player and gave me the cover.
I noticed quickly by the cover that it wasn’t a CD after all, but a Copy Controlled disc – but I wanted to listen to it anyway. The music was nice, so I did listen for a while, but the experience was marred by repetitive clicks and small skips in regular intervals, as if the disc was badly scratched. When I told this, the reply was that this wasn’t too unusual – they just tried another disc if that was the case, and this could be without the clicks and that stuff – and they were easily ripped anyway. “Would I try another one?” But no, buying such a disc is totally out of the question for me. I would rather find another one, a CD that works as it should.
As I looked through the CDs, I noticed there were some tempting ones that I normally would try, even buy, but despite their placement among the innocent CDs, they couldn’t hide the ugly fact: The Copy Controlled logo told its story – not a CD, don’t buy.
So, the result? The record company (EMI and subsidiaries) lost sales of at least one CD, because they try to sell faulty discs. Sorry Coldplay, not this time – but if you decide you’ve had enough and want to release your music on CDs later, I may have a look again.
For thise who are curious, I ended up with “Leaves’ Eyes: Vinland Saga” – also an enhaced CD, but the enhancement in this case consists of some extra video tracks, not any copy protection stuff. Nice.
