dreadedmonkeygod . net

Sony has announced that they will be closing Sony CONNECT and terminating support for the DRM on music bought there.

What does this mean for users?

Like 8-track cassettes, Sony CONNECT music will be playable on old players only; nothing new will play Sony CONNECT music. Even Sony's own stuff won't play it in the future. If you want to listen to it, you have to dig out your old player.

Or, you can burn each album to a regular CD and re-import it into your new player.

So, in a nutshell: the next music player you buy won't play your old stuff, and getting around that is a giant pain in the neck.

Way to go, Sony.

This problem affects only music bought legitimately through Sony CONNECT. As always, DRM bites legitimate users only. Pirates, downloaders, and lawbreakers remain unaffected. (And increasingly prone to saying, "I told you so.")