Virgin Digital To Close Up Shop

mrspin writes in to note the demise of the Virgin Digital music store. Here is Virgin's announcement. It will shut down in stages: the service closed its doors to new subscribers on Friday; current subscribers will lose all access to it when their next monthly payment is due or on Oct. 19, whichever comes first. The store advises customers who have purchased downloads to back them up to CD and re-import them as MP3. It used to discourage such DRM-evading tactics.

Re:Higher Expectations

[GregariousBoson]

IANAL, but chances are it wouldn't need to. Behind all the pages of EULAs the users didn't read was certainly a statement disclaiming any guarantee that the tracks will work at some future date. If it's anything like Napster's subscription service then they're no longer paying the monthly fees to access them anyway.

Re:Sony did the Same

[GrahamCox]

...but they were switching from a propriety format to something based on windows media...

That is, another proprietary format.

Re:Re-import to Mp3?

[bignetbuy]

We understand it -- we just don't care. lol

No, seriously. Anything bought on iTunes should be ripped to Audio CD anyway for backup purposes. That strips the Fairplay DRM -- and can be re-imported into your music player of choice.

Either You're Free, Or you're Apple

[illectro]

Apple seem to be the only people who've managed a paid digital music store with any success. eMusic [emusic.com] has been going forever without any real traction, Napster [napster.com] continues to lose money, meanwhile you can get free, legal major label music from places like imeem.com [imeem.com] which is all ad supported.

GemStar's eBook is a good example

[dpbsmith]

It sure didn't happen with the $300 worth of DRMed, encrypted content I purchased for my GemStar eBook.

That content is keyed to a hardware serial number in my own, personal eBook device.

The servers were shut down, the customer service people who could have enabled the content to work on a different eBook device are gone, but it doesn't matter anyway because there are no follow-on devices that use that encryption scheme.

No provision was made for freeing the content, there's no equivalent of "burning to CD and re-RIPping), and when my vintage 2000 eBook--which has started to act funny--finally dies, all the content I purchased dies with it.

*cough*

[msimm]

eMusic no traction? They are the second largest [cnn.com] digital music retailer. The #1 largest DRM-free retailer and probably the only major digital retailer with (recently updated) Linux support. It's a great resource for slightly older music or anything even remotely off the beaten path (my main interest).

Re:Great example of a common argument against DRM

[Anonymous Coward]

People are going to have to either waste CD-R's or loose quality by reencoding them to another lossy format... really abismal.

Whoa, hold on Mr. Informative and Insightful:

One can re-use CD-RW discs to minimize waste, and retain all of the quality (or lack thereof) by re-encoding the music in a lossless format such as FLAC.

I'm not saying that it isn't a crappy event for those who decided to go with Virgin. But there is recourse without "CD-R waste" or "abysmal" loss in quality.

Re:Re-import to Mp3?

[langelgjm]

Burn lossy file to CD. Re-rip and encode it in a lossless format. The resulting file will sound identical to the original.

At a significantly increased size compared with the original file. Or, you could avoid all this nonsense with QTFairUse [wikipedia.org] or hymn [wikipedia.org], no?

Did Virgin even read their Terms & Conditions?

[r_jensen11]

Near the top: [virgindigital.co.uk]

The terms and conditions below apply to you if you use any of the Virgin Digital service (as more particularly set out in paragraph 5 and the Virgin Digital Player which is the software platform from which subscribers operate the services), the terms and conditions also governs the use of the Website itself....

Your use of this Website, the Virgin Digital Player and the Virgin Digital service are subject to these terms and conditions. By using this Website, the Virgin Digital Player and/or any of the Virgin Digital service, you acknowledge your consent to them.

Virgin reserves the right at its sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove any part(s) of these terms and conditions without notice. It is important (and your responsibility) to check these terms and conditions periodically for any changes. Changes will be posted here. Your continued use of the Website or the Virgin Digital Player or the Virgin Digital service following the posting of any changes will constitute your acceptance of the changes.

And further down...:

4. SERVICE LICENCES
The following sets out the licences which Virgin is granting you in order to use the Virgin Digital service as set out in Paragraph 5 below.

4.1 Content Licence
Virgin grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence ("Content Licence") to download or stream digital music content ("Content") to your personal computer or Portable Device (as defined in paragraph 5 below and subject to your rights under these terms and conditions) solely for your personal non-commercial use. You shall not (without limitation) copy, reproduce, "rip", distribute or use the Content in any other manner, save as permitted by these terms and conditions.

And further down yet:

5. SERVICE DESCRIPTION AND USAGE

...

5.1.3 "Purchased Download" A Track downloaded to the hard drive of your computer which can either be burned to a CD or transferred to a portable device subject to the following usage rules: (a) Purchased Downloads may be transferred to portable devices, which shall mean a hardware device with software (including embedded software) ("Portable Device") which enables you to export Permitted Downloads from a personal computer for play back on a Portable Device in accordance with the provisions of these terms and conditions. (b) You can make up to seven (7) burns per individual playlist (i.e. your chosen selection of Tracks in one (1) particular order). (c) You can transfer any single Purchased Download to up to five (5) secure portable devices up to twenty-five (25) times. PLEASE NOTE that any attempt to circumvent any controls that we have in place to prevent additional burning and/or transfers outside of your permitted rights will be a breach of these terms and conditions and may result in the immediate termination of your Virgin Account and may also subject you to civil and/or criminal liability.

And finally...:

15.3 In the event of a direct conflict or inconsistency between these terms and conditions and privacy policy and other terms and conditions that may be applicable to the Website or the Services these terms and conditions shall prevail to the extent that such conflict relates to your use of the Services and/or Website.

15.4 The failure of Virgin to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these terms and conditions will not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

Emphasis mine

So basically, Virgin can tell you whatever the hell you want to hear, with regards to how to handle the music you've downloaded. The only caveat is that it's non-binding and that the terms in their "Terms and Conditions" section hold up in court.

going out of business ?

[smoker2]

To all those posters pontificating on the reason this business has failed, you should know that Virgin has just sold its Megastores in a management buyout.
Maybe the new owners of all things musical in Virgin don't see any profit in maintaining the online music store ?
And even if the online store was to remain outside of the buyout, Virgin Media have been making moves towards being a *big* media company for some time now (broadband, cable tv, mobile & landline telephony). Maybe there is no room for online music sales in that future. Control the infrastructure, let others worry about the consumables.