My wife got me hooked on diet soda. I learned diet drinks go bad fairly quickly — the Aspartame has a short shelf life. Unfortunately, for some music lovers their music library could go flat just as quickly.
In 2004, Coke launched mycokemusic, quickly becoming the #1 online music store in the UK. Now Coke has decided to shutter the service. The problem for customers: mycokemusic sold digitally restricted files in Microsoft's Windows Media format. When customers play their songs they need to phone the mothership for authorization. But the mothership is going away. With no authorization, those purchased songs become digital flotsam.
It's a stark illustration that buying DRM songs is really rental, not ownership. I think DRM tracks should have expiration warnings like Diet Coke cans. All DRM tracks will eventually go flat and stop working. Your insurance is to buy CDs or purchase from vendors who sell in open formats.
--MR
