I received several CDs recently, notably the Monsters of Folk (Jim James, M. Ward, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis) and Porcupine Tree'sThe Incident, that I really wanted to listen to but was unable to hear. Why? Because these promo discs were watermarked and copy protected to ensure that I didn't rip them and post them online (uh, something I would never do). So this means that these discs won't play in my computer. Fair enough. I recently installed a cheap DVD player in my office/home studio rack just so I could listen to protected CDs and hear music without bogging down my laptop. But guess what? These copy protected CDs "may also experience playback problems in car systems, DVD players and game consoles." So the discs wouldn't play on my DVD player. As my only other disc playing options are either other computers, a Blu-Ray player or my car stereo I guess I won't be able to hear these albums. I'm certainly not about to go out and buy a CD-only player. In fact, good fucking luck finding one of those these days. So who can actually even get a chance to listen to these CDs? How many journalists have a CD-only disc player sitting next to their computer? I'd really like to hear this music, and write about it inTape Op Magazine. Oh well. I'm sure I can find some other music to listen to. Good job, record industry. You're really winning the listeners over this time.....
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