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back to article Vodafone Music drops the protection

Vodafone has announced that from this summer the company's music store will start switching to DRM-free MP3 files, with every Vodafone network going DRM-free over the next few years. Germany, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, and the UK will be first to drop the Digital Rights Management that currently encumbers music bought from …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    MP3...

    ...is plenty good enough at 320kbps. Or even 200kbps VBR LAME. Like you say, it's widely compatible, and more to the point, storage is cheap so you can have good quality at the expense of slightly bigger files.

    Personally though, I'd still rather have it in FLAC. It's not that I can hear the difference most of the time, it's just that I feel somehow cheated out of the bits they've thrown away...

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't know if they've changed recently...

    ... but when my wife was with Vodafone, their DRM wouldn't let you use your own MP3s - bought, ripped or made - on the phone, unless you went through a complicated signing process for each one. They also couldn't explain why this was the case when there was no mention in their T&Cs.

    Glad to have ditched them. Too little, too late.

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  3. the_leander
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    Oh Noes, not MP3!

    "The transition also involves moving to MP3 file format, which is a shame as there are plenty of alternative codecs that offer higher quality with greater compression, but in the mind of the public, MP3 is associated with compatibility and lack of restrictions. So we're stuck with it."

    Yes, because the vast, vast, vast majority of mobile phones are capable of playing OGG and AAC... Oh wait...

    Kudos to Vodaphone for making the move.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
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    @ the_leander

    > Yes, because the vast, vast, vast majority of mobile phones are capable of playing OGG and AAC... Oh wait...

    Actually, 95% of Sony Ericsson phones from the last few years can play AAC, as can most recent Nokia's. (Not sure about Samsung & LG though.)

    I think you could say SE & Nokia do make up a large proportion of phones purchased.

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  5. paul
    Thumb Up

    better than iTunes

    They wont let you change to no drm for free.

    I dont buy anything from apple iTunes even though I have its little sidekick the jesus phone.

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  6. Chris Ovenden
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    MP3 is still good enough

    Agree with what other people have said about MP3 (except I use 192kbps VBR not, uh, 200) - sound quality is fine, even on expensive headphones, and it's compatible everywhere.

    I can listen to my own MP3s on my Vodafone Samsung Omnia without a problem. Don't know what other formats the built in player supports - being a Win phone there's probably a player out there for AAC (sadly, OGG is dead) - but why take the chance?

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  7. Bill Ray (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: MP3 is still good enough

    The player built into the Omnia supports Ogg fine, though personally I use LCG Jukebox.

    Bill.

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