Christopher Mackay’s Blog

So I thought to myself, hey, I’d like to buy John Williams’ original score from Superman. It’s strange, I know, but I like that kind of thing. I’m a child of the seventies.

So I work my way through the tubes, eventually finding The Google, where I learn that Rhino Records had issued a well-thought-of two-disc edition a few years back.

Cool. Rhino has a good reputation. I check out their site.

Rhino’s search results are heavily-skewed towards Superman Returns. No, thanks.

Poking around some more, I learn that they don’t sell this CD, they only sell it as a “Digital Download”. That’s fine — I get nearly all of my music from iTunes these days. MP3s will do just fine.

But no, they only sell “protected WMA” files. What am I going to do with these on my Mac laptop or iPod? Nothing. Stupid Windows Media. (”Plays For Sure”, only it won’t.)

At the bottom of the page, it says songs won’t play on iPods (no shit), but they might be available on iTunes.

I check iTunes (Canada). Nothing.

I email Rhino, asking if there are any alternatives to crappy, useless WMA files for people with iPods (how many people could that be?

I’m still waiting to hear from them (it’s been nearly a week now).

So tonight, I say ’screw it’: I’ll find some shareware tool for stripping Microsoft’s digital encumbrances from the files, and turn them into MP3 files on a Windows XP box at work. I’m not into file-sharing; they’ll only ever be on my PowerBook and my iPod, so I certainly won’t be violating the spirit of the licence.

I find a shareware tool. I bookmark the page, ready to buy.

I go back to Rhino’s web store.

I find the music.

I click ‘buy’.

I’m told to choose my province from a list of 50 states (not an easy task when your Canadian province isn’t one of the 50 US states…).

I choose “Canada” as my country.

I fill out the rest of the form, leaving Province at the default (blank).

The site tells me I’m an idiot and, coincidentally, that I must go back and choose my province.

I go back and choose my province from what is now a list of 10 Canadian provinces (the 50 states have gone, but the 3 Canadian territories are still MIA)

I click ‘buy’ again.

Now the site tells me they can’t “deliver” my order to Canada. Have a nice day.

My patience has begun to wear thin.

I call their toll-free number, and the nice woman on the phone explains that no, they don’t sell digital downloads to Canada; no, she doesn’t know why they don’t; and no, she doesn’t know why Rhino hasn’t answered my email. Helpfully, though, and in a cheerful voice, she gave me the toll-free number for “Dr Rhino”, whom she assured me could answer these pressing questions. Fair enough.

Dr Rhino’s toll-free hotline doesn’t work from Canada. (You saw that one coming, didn’t you? Aren’t you cynical?)

I can’t belive the record companies haven’t all gone out of business. How many more barriers do you think they could put in place to prevent me from legally buying music?