DRM on new CDs

I recently bought 3 CDs

Traffic old used
Joni Mitchell new
Jo Stafford new

The Traffic CD mounted on my desktop just like always
The new CDs did not
loaded 2 Kb AIFF-C files.

Is anyone else seeing this?

I opened one of the AIFF-C files in Audacity, it was empty.

I’ve NEVER personally seen a copy protected CD. It was always rare, never really “caught-on”, and as far as I know it doesn’t exist anymore.

THE REPRISE ALBUMS (1968-1971)
Joni Mitchell

When is the last time you bought a new CD
and listened to it on your computer.

98782AF9-274C-40B2-9B94-0089EE5EB839.jpg

I’ve only ever had one - a Sony produced one by Cerys Mathews

Peter.

4 weeks ago :sunglasses: :nerd:

P.

Thanks for the info.

I know this is not an Audacity issue but thought maybe someone here was also having similar issues with audio files.
3 of the new CDs I have bought recently have had problems
only John Barleycorn and Court and Spark old used, old new worked ok

I still believe it is a DRM issue but will have to see

a little rusty on the forum
audacity_file.jpg

Joni Mitchell new
Jo Stafford new

Are they Sony Records and Tapes? I believe, from fuzzy memory, that Sony was the only one who ever seriously used copy protection. It did not go well.

Do they play on a stand-alone CD player?

Do they look like perfect factory CDs? Color paint job and silvery (not orangy or tan) data side? Factory pressed disks have billions of tiny dots pressed into an aluminum layer. They’re silver. Home burned CD-R disks burn tiny data holes in a dye layer similar to color photography. Don’t leave a home burned disk beside or under a sunny window.

I don’t recognize that data pattern.

It’s easy to screw up an Audio CD. The sound, while perfect quality WAV, is not in WAV format. That was too wasteful. So it’s streaming with an address track to tell the player where everything is. It’s a snap to mess up this addressing scheme. One other note. Audio CDs don’t have song titles. The Player goes on-line and tries to figure it out. It can get it wrong.

The song titles in my car (with no intertnet) are TRACK-1, TRACK-2, etc.

Koz

There’s another bell ringing. I show 28 songs. At 3 minutes each, that’s 84 minutes. Normal Commercial CDs max out at 74 minutes.

The new technology (CDs) could allow listeners to hear the whole of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony without interruption. 74 minutes.

Newer burn methods might allow more minutes, but may not play on older players.

Koz

Smoking My Sad Cigarette and The Nearness Of You are both over 3 minutes. “Nearness” is 3:23.

I think that catalog would not fit on an Audio CD.

Something is very fishy.

Did you save your receipts?

koz

Thanks for your attention.

I think you are on to something there.

But CRSIS AVERTED

Apple still makes a Superdrive,
I bought one
It all works fine.

All except for my old optical drives
External and in the Mac Mini

As Koz wrote in an earlier post, Sony was the only major label to implement wide spread copy protection to CD’s.
(There may have been smaller “players” but not sure).

Anyways, the Sony system was very insidious in that it copied/loaded some software onto your computer if played on it.
It also would not allow ripping as they implemented some tricks with messing the TOC (table of contents) which is track 0
on all music CD’s.

This was during the heydays of Windows 98 and was not only an invasion of privacy but in some cases, the software would go
wonky and crash your OS.

Some countries, also allow the owner of a bought tape/CD/DVD to make one archival copy for personal use for backup purposes.
That right was taken away by them.

I was one of the many that was affected by this and swore to never use any Sony product ever again.

Decades later, a studio complex I was working at, decided it was time for upgrading.
It was my call as to which supplier/s we would get cameras, mixing desks, CGens, etc from.

Sony didn’t get a cent from us.

@audio_pete

If you have a standalone CD/DVD player with Toslink (optical) output and a soundcard with optical input…well, you know what I mean.
You could also use the RCA outputs and line inputs but, that would mean going from digital to analog and back again, which is not ideal
and will degrade the quality.