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Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

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Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#61

Post by pbhjpbhj »

segfaultbuserr wrote: post #37
SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #3

No privacy terrors? What short memories we have. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...

A standard Red Book audio CD cannot install malware to your system. It was the data CD with music that Sony shipped made it possible. This is why, I, sometimes a CD buyer, believe all listeners of Audio CD should try maintaining the status quo of CD, as defined by the Red Book, and resist/boycott any attempt by the industry to "make a better CD" (e.g. SACD, Audio DVD, Audio Bluray), or "add more functionalities" to t…

>A standard Red Book audio CD cannot install malware to your system. //

I don't think I'd ever be so confident as to say that given some of the incredible hacks I've seen ;o)

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#62

Post by orloffm »

chewz wrote: post #36
sschueller wrote: post #24

What bugs me is that quite a lot of things are not available. I ripped my entire CD collection and uploaded into Google Music (not sure if that feature still exists). I have all this music available but I can not find it on other peoples google music. So if I share a song, they get an error. Most of this music is nothing special and quite mainstream but if I search on other peoples devices I can not find the songs on…

> I can not find the songs only alternate versions from other people who made a cover version of the song. Try some jazz like Coltrane or Miles Davis. It seems they never stoped issuing albums - remastered, Coltrane for lovers, Miles for cooking. It is next to impossible to find original album or remastered original. Yesterday on Youtube Music oldest Coltrane album was from 2015.

"or" here really simplifies things. Nowadays almost every 70s-90s album on streaming services is a remaster with overloaded levels and clippings. One has to resort to torrent sites to find rips from original CDs or vinyls.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#63

Post by tadzik_ »

hpaavola wrote: post #12

Any recommendations for music stores which sell mp3's? I ordered Nokia 8110 4G and ditch my smartphone once it arrives. I think it only supports mp3's so I need to start buying albums and not rely on Spotify.

I think that's where CDs come in: for a lot of artists this is the only way to buy an album and end up with non-DRMed, not watermarked plain MP3 you can listen to on whatever you want. You end up with unnecessary plastic waste on your shelf, sure, but at least you have you own, independent music files – and at least you got more value than someone who straight up pirated it.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#64

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Worth noting here that ripping a CD is a copyright infringement, yes even for individuals, here in UK. We had about 2 years when it wasn't.

Yes, that means Apple iTunes and the like provide tools for copyright infringement -- far worse than the young adult that got extradited to USA for providing links on a website (which is allowed in UK law) -- and in theory could be sued for contributory infringement.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#65

Post by Moru »

dirkt wrote: post #26
SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #3

No privacy terrors? What short memories we have. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...

To nitpick: Pure musics CD (CD-DA) can't contain any DRM or rootkits, because the format doesn't allow for data - it's all sound. Only combined CD-ROM/CD-R + CD-DA formats together with the unfortunate eagerness of Windows to auto-execute everything allows such rootkits. So if you feed a music CD to a real old CD player, or to (say) a properly configured Linux computer: No privacy terrors.

Or a properly configured windows. Not even windows 95 would autorun a CD if you didn't tell it to.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#66

Post by josteink »

chewz wrote: post #36
sschueller wrote: post #24

What bugs me is that quite a lot of things are not available. I ripped my entire CD collection and uploaded into Google Music (not sure if that feature still exists). I have all this music available but I can not find it on other peoples google music. So if I share a song, they get an error. Most of this music is nothing special and quite mainstream but if I search on other peoples devices I can not find the songs on…

> I can not find the songs only alternate versions from other people who made a cover version of the song. Try some jazz like Coltrane or Miles Davis. It seems they never stoped issuing albums - remastered, Coltrane for lovers, Miles for cooking. It is next to impossible to find original album or remastered original. Yesterday on Youtube Music oldest Coltrane album was from 2015.

> Try some jazz like Coltrane or Miles Davis. It seems they never stoped issuing albums - remastered

This is only done to prevent copyright expiration and having the album become public domain.

You’ll see they only do it for “oldish” albums. It’s quite a scam.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#67

Post by avra »

nickjj wrote: post #57

Instead or privacy terrors you have other terrors like wondering if the CD will even play, especially if you've listened to it a lot over 5+ years, even with good care. I'm surprised the article doesn't cover a more relevant approach like just playing local mp3s from your computer. You get the same no ads, no privacy issues, no algorithms but you have the added benefit of not having to lug around a binder of CDs to p…

I'm curious why a CD would not work anymore after listening to it a lot? Is the laser powerful enough to damage it or is it the heat from the device itself which is degrading the material in the long term?

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#68

Post by vbuwivbiu »

butteroverflow wrote: post #41
hpaavola wrote: post #12

Any recommendations for music stores which sell mp3's? I ordered Nokia 8110 4G and ditch my smartphone once it arrives. I think it only supports mp3's so I need to start buying albums and not rely on Spotify.

https://bandcamp.com/ ?

Bandcamp is truely the best music platform and one of the best websites there is today. It's fair to artists and its UX is in the rarest of states: done. I hope to god they never change a thing.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#69

Post by segfaultbuserr »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #61
segfaultbuserr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A standard Red Book audio CD cannot install malware to your system. It was the data CD with music that Sony shipped made it possible. This is why, I, sometimes a CD buyer, believe all listeners of Audio CD should try maintaining the status quo of CD, as defined by the Red Book, and resist/boycott any attempt by the industry to "make a better CD" (e.g. SACD, Audio DVD, Audio Bluray), or "add more functionalities" to t…

>A standard Red Book audio CD cannot install malware to your system. // I don't think I'd ever be so confident as to say that given some of the incredible hacks I've seen ;o)

Well, theoretically, "an Audio CD that exploits a buffer overflow of your music player on your computer and installs malware" is always a possibility, and a good intellectual challenge.

But doing it at an industrial scale and including an 0day exploit in all albums is a separate thing, I don't believe it would ever happen. On the other hand, creating an extension of the standard to "make a better CD" is a real threat, for example, a plausible example would be:

"a CD-based service that connects to a server to obtain metadata and lyrics of your music, like a proprietary version of MusicBrainz, but with ads and tracking added."

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#70

Post by ubercow13 »

coldtea wrote: post #50
epanchin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good lesson for anyone considering user unfriendly features.

Nobody "considered" them, it was what the music industry demanded at the time. In fact, as far as major services (e.g. major distributor and not some niche music market with "indie" artists only) iTunes was the one that spearheaded the un-DRM of music (with Steve Jobs' call to end music DRM: https://betanews.com/2007/02/06/apple-s-steve-jobs-calls-for... ).

The music industry considered them, then
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