Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Trying to go Legit

So I really like Sarah McLachlan's last album, Afterglow. Initially I had downloaded and burned the album, but recently I seem to have lost it. Because I really enjoyed the album, I decided that I would purchase the album via PureTracks.com.

I'm not a newb at downloading music, so I figured I could get away with just download and play and burn, etc. I realized I only could burn the album three times as they had made that perfectly clear. So I went ahead and downloaded the files onto my computer at lightening fast speed. I was so excited.

Once I got my album I listened to it while I sent the folder downstairs through the network so I could burn it. Once down there, I found out that my downstairs computer did not have the rights to the music and therefore wouldn't even play it. Of course, this information was not passed to me - perhaps it was my own naivity.

After much frustration I figured out how to transfer the rights downstairs. For the record this is the stupidest shit ever. If I go to HMV and I buy a cd, I own the rights, I can lend it to who I want, and I can copy it to CASSETTE tape if I want and pass them around to friends - so how is it that when I buy the fucking wma files I can't even switch the things to my other computer?

Needless to say this was a frustrating experience. So I finally get the rights downstairs and click the copy button (you can ONLY use Windows Media Player for any of these actions, otherwise it sends to you a webpage saying "puretracks.com only supports WMP 9). It starts to convert. I email the puretracks people for the third time telling them that I got it alllll sorted out, and sorry for bothering them.

When I return downstairs, it turns out the burn failed. So I look at the error, and follow the instructions to slow down the burn process. And it fails. And then, I slow down the burn process again - and it fails. I have used my three burns.

This renders the entire 9.90 (plus GST) experience completely fucking useless... and now I'm back to where I was to begin with. In IRC, in queue, to get the Sarah McLachlan album. At least I "technically" paid for it.

Hoping all is well in your world