Puretracks offers DRM free music

[Bobblehead]

Puretracks, a competitor to iTunes in Canada, has, up to this point, only sold music with Microsoft's Digital Rights Management (DRM). This meant that people with iPods could not buy songs for use on their iPods, along with all the other DRM issues.

Now Puretracks is offering some tracks that are DRM-free, including artists from the Canadian labels (Nettwerk et al) like Sarah McLaughlin, Bare Naked Ladies, and so on.

link


(Note: eMusic has been doing this for a long time.)

[Fuzzy McGillicuddy]

There's an industry move towards dropping DRM...

http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/02/21/ju...europeanexecs/

I think we'll see this eventually. I refuse to purchase music from Puretracks. When I bought a new computer, I had difficulty transfering tracks purchased via Puretracks because the DRM wouldn't transfer with the file. Tracks I purchased through Napster were fine.

I subscribed to e-music for about a month. I found the selection was poor. Maybe it will get better.

[photon]

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/22...wnload_st.html

Anyone actually download one of the MP3's to see what the real deal is?

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by photon

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/22...wnload_st.html

Anyone actually download one of the MP3's to see what the real deal is?

I'll give it a shot right now....

[photon]

It could just be their site isn't updated yet to reflect the new changes too.

[Bobblehead]

When you sign up you get one free track (so this didn't cost me anything)

Here is the Order Screen:

It clearly shows I'm ordering the MP3 (you could also order wma)

Since I use FireFox, I had to download a tiny "PureTracks download Manager". It did the file transfer.

And here is what I received:


So it is in wma! But it is NOT protected (no DRM).
I can play the file in Media Player Classic, but I don't have the wma plugin for Foobar.

So it looks like a half truth - the files don't appear to have DRM but ar NOT MP3 as advertised.

[photon]

Hm, weird. They're also saying on slashdot that the site changes depending if you have a Canadian IP or not.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by photon

Hm, weird. They're also saying on slashdot that the site changes depending if you have a Canadian IP or not.

I sent a help request to PureTracks saying "I Want my MP3"