Download Squad

Last week while everyone was busy playing taps for the Virgin Digital store, we got to thinking; How much money is disappearing into thin air as online music stores like Virgin -- which popped up faster than zits before prom night during recent years -- go belly up, leaving the game to its dominant player, Apple. In most cases, when a store like Virgin shutters, your DRM locked tracks are orphaned. Abandoned with no one left to phone home to, a method many players use check the validity of your right to listen to the music you could have sworn you bought and paid for.

It's a dirty little secret; Many DRM formats will simply die if their benefactor company stops paying the internet bill.

Maybe we should explain; When you cough up a buck for a digital track, you aren't really buying anything, rather you're leasing that music for as long as the store manages to stay open, and to support that particular DRM format. If the store disappears, or your DRM format falls victim to obsolescence, you can say goodbye to all those tunes you paid for. Virgin is encouraging users to do something for which they often chastised customers before, burn those tracks to CD and then rip them back to mp3.

Although audiophiles typically shun the low aural quality of digital downloads, even the most brain-dead consumer can hear the artifacts let behind by multi-generational compress and decompress cycle inflicted upon your music when you burn a compressed format back to CD, and then compress it again to mp3. Forget about the romantic pops and clicks of vinyl, those choked out highs and the loss of sonic integrity inflicted on a lowly digital download can drive you absolutely mad. In essence, if you paid or music from Virgin (or one of the many digital music stores who've gone under, or will soon enough) you've done nothing more than stuff quarters in a slightly more generous and portable version of the jukebox. Caveat emptor, indeed.

Aside from the many other detractions among the DRM list of features (vendor lock-in, rules that don't apply to conventional CDs, and those icky click-wrap agreements), the potential loss of all that music to the ether as stores go under should raise serious concerns for consumers; and possibly your state's attorney general. So how do you keep your digital music forever, and save those real-world dollars in the process?