Digital, Our Song for the Ages

Just about every other format shift in the recorded-music industry has increased sound quality, but with digital music, we've been content to yield some. Witness the irrelevance of two would-be successors to the audio CD, the DVD-Audio and Super Audio Compact Disc formats. Both formats capture more detail than the CD, much less the average MP3, and both have tanked in the market.

At some point, convenience trumps perfection -- something that the developers of high-definition video discs should ponder as they compete with DVDs and the nascent video-download market.

The other digital-music trade-off was imposed by the major record labels. When they finally began selling their catalogues as digital downloads, they required online retailers wrap their music in "digital rights management" software.

This so-called DRM manages our rights by limiting them. It imposes quotas on how many computers you can play a "DRM-ed" download on, and how often you can burn that song to an audio CD. Any sort of sharing -- or even a simple resale -- is usually banned outright. And the lack of a common DRM format means you can't even count on playing a purchased download on the hardware and software of your choice.

Before the advent of iTunes and other online stores, a lot of DRM opponents thought the entire concept of software-enforced usage limits was so inherently repellent that it would flop in the market.

That hasn't happened with major-label music downloads. By the millions, customers have put down their money for songs that don't offer the same freedom of use as plain old CDs. They've bought songs that can be heard only on approved hardware and that they can't easily give to friends or even pass on to their heirs.

The DRM attached to music sales online does come with an escape hatch of sorts, however. Liberating one of these downloads requires merely burning it to an audio CD, then popping that CD right back into the computer. You can then copy the songs off the CD in the open, unprotected format of your choice, though with a slight loss in quality from that re-conversion process. (The absence of any such workaround in most video downloads is glaring.)

I'd like to think that digital-music DRM could never have gotten anywhere without this get-out-of-jail-free card. But it may be that most customers don't care that much; as long as DRM doesn't impose outrageous restrictions and works with the hardware most people own, they will accept this bargain.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrobp@washpost.com.