Wal-Mart Closes Down DRM Operations, Makes Music Unplayable

People who bought music from the Wal-Mart digital music store prior to February 2008 will soon be unable to access their music, thanks to the company's dismantling of its out-of-use DRM technology. "If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer," the company said in a statement. "This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free." This makes sense to us and the majority of digital music-buying population, as DRM is bad and Wal-Mart is doing away with it, but tell that to anybody who invested in Wal-Mart's vast download store. No word yet whether Wal-Mart will allow consumers to replenish their digital music libraries with the DRM-free MP3s rather than forcing them to degrade in quality.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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