simon319 said:

Glad 2 hear it. Seriously, we need more positive reports. We know a large number of members are able 2 connect and get the music successfully. We have the stats. Let's not let a few people ruin it 4 everyone.

What are you talking about? It's good to know that after buying everything prince has released in his entire career the, and for 20 years now doing so the day it was released, being a member of this club since the day it started, spending $225 on club membership fees, and spending hundreds of dollars to see him in concert, you, as his public representative have excluded me from "everyone" and lumped me in with the "few people ruining it".

I pointed out on this very forum a full month ago that there would be problems with the WMA format you intended to use. I pointed out that it was going to be a problem for Mac users, I pointed out it would be a problem for iPod users from both platforms, I pointed out that it would be a problem for people with older windows systems. I asked many times that alternatives be made available. I even suggested possible alternatives, including the two most reasonable
- Mirror the content on the iTunes music store and get additional sales - sales to the "few people" as you say it, who are not addressed by your WMA format you have insisted on sticking with.
- Drop the DRM as it doesn't work. The entire musicology album was available for download before the store even opened. And if the music can be burned to a CD, somebody somewhere will post an MP3 of the result. In a futile attempt to stop this, you have stopped many honest people from buying the music.

Those "few people" as you put it represent the vast majority of the legal online music buying public. I have bought dozens of songs from the iTunes music store - a very easy process. I can preview the songs before I buy them. I can listen to the songs on other computers in my house without copying the songs to the other computers, I can load the songs into my iPod and listen to them in the car or anywhere else I want to. Apple's store doesn't sell 2 1/2 million songs/week because the songs aren't illegally available for free elsewhere, they sell 2 1/2 million songs a week because they make it easy for people to be customers. Windows users are as welcome as Mac users.

How do your stats factor in the users like me who refuse to even attempt to buy the music until there are legal ways to both burn a CD and copy it to an iPod? This is the first time since I became a Prince fan 20 years ago that I didn't buy a new album the first day it was made available.

Well, if ya gotta do battle with your PC just to hear a few Prince tunes, that says WHAT....?