Brian's Brain

After I published Monday's writeup on the looming shutdown of the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service and transfer of subscribers' accounts to RealNetworks' Rhapsody, I had the opportunity to speak with Roku Labs' Vice President of product management, Tim Twerdahl, about some of the issues I raised in it. Tim's only been with Roku for two weeks, he was quick to point out (he previously managed Netflix's Internet TV business), so he wasn't able to completely answer all of my questions. But he dropped me enough navigation bread crumbs that, in conjunction with a bit of Google surfing (and in spite of lack of response from either Real Networks or Sandisk), I think I've been able to sort out how the situation will look for YME folks after the Rhapsody transfer.

Tim's coincidentally a Rhapsody subscriber, and he first and foremost reassured me that he was able to use a SoundBridge to stream music off his PC via the Rhapsody client's built-in UPnP service, in spite of RealNetworks' transition away from PlaysForSure and to a company-proprietary DRM (which for the remainder of this writeup, I'll refer to as RAX). He also verified my understanding that Rhapsody was a 'hybrid' DRM service, supporting both 'R' Sansa devices (for example) and generic PlaysForSure hardware. And, in a statement that really threw me for a loop, he suggested that he thought the Rhapsody client was transcoding the files' audio codec and associated DRM scheme prior to transferring them to a PlaysForSure portable device.

This technique is conceptually feasible, of course, although from a hacking standpoint it's not an ideal approach...at some point in the transcoding process, the content (or at least a portion of it) must invariably be 'in the clear' (i.e. DRM-free) and malicious code could then redirect it. But transcoding didn't explain Tim's SoundBridge support claims. UPnP only sets up (and tears down) connections between servers and clients; it's up to the client to (based on what codecs and DRM schemes it supports) sort through the server's contents and identify appropriate content for playback. I proved this myself yesterday after my phone conversation with him.

As background: beginning with Windows Media Player 10, Microsoft installed an always-running UPnP server called Windows Media Connect on the operating system. My laptop also has Yahoo Music Jukebox installed on it, since I'm a YME subscriber, and like the Rhapsody client (per Tim's feedback), Yahoo Music Jukebox includes its own built-in UPnP server. So when YME is running and I search for available servers from my SoundBridge, I find two entries for my MacBook; one for the Windows Media Connect UPnP server and the other for Yahoo Music Jukebox.

My SoundBridges (and Xbox 360s) support not only the WMA codec but also the PlaysForSure DRM, so they can play back subscription content over UPnP just fine. However, although my Nokia N800 Internet Tablet and Sony PlayStation 3 also contain UPnP clients and also support the WMA audio format, they don't support the PlaysForSure DRM. They can play back non-DRM'd WMA content just fine over a UPnP link, but they choke on DRM-inclusive material coming from either UPnP server. Similarly, neither they nor the Roku SoundBridge can handle iTunes FairPlay DRM-soaked AAC tracks.

My Internet research this morning uncovered the answer (I think). Beginning with v4 of the Rhapsody client, it defaults upon initial install (or upgrade) to downloading tracks from RealNetworks' servers in RAX format. And, as long as you don't authorize a PlaysForSure portable device, the Rhapsody client remains RAX-centric. If you initiate a PlaysforSure portable peripheral sync, the default format switches to WMA. And what if you have both RAX and PlaysForSure portable devices authorized? The default download format is RAX, and the Rhapsody client does the codec and DRM transcoding Tim mentioned prior to transfer to the PlaysForSure device(s).

The RAX default format doesn't help out PlaysForSure-only UPnP clients, however, as I previously pointed out. For folks like me, RealNetworks also provided the ability to hard-code the default download format via a Windows Registry key or client software settings:

You might think that doing so would preclude your ability to play back content over your already-purchased 'R' portable devices but, as Sandisk's FAQ points out, you're able to switch 'R' players between RAX (MSC: Mass Storage Class) and PlaysForSure (MTP: Memory Transfer Protocol) modes via a settings menu selection. Sandisk's documentation also points out the added capabilities of RAX versus PlaysForSure; I was glad to see that RealNetworks didn't (only) intend the DRM transition to be a means of locking customers into proprietary hardware.

A couple of other Yahoo! Music Unlimited comments, in closing:

• The Yahoo! website now provides a lengthy (albeit question-and-answer-incomplete) FAQ on the Rhapsody migration
• I'm sorry to see that, if reports are accurate, there's no plan to prolong the Sansa Connect's wireless capabilities beyond the YME shutdown date.
• I'm reassured to see that, although Yahoo! is phasing out the service, they're still (for now, at least) maintaining the client software. Yesterday afternoon when I fired up YME, I was greeted by the following notification pop-up:

The update installed fine, and I was up and running again after a 12+ MByte download, upgrade, and application auto-reboot.

And by the way: before anyone responds 'yeah, well this mess is why DRM should be eliminated'...I completely agree with you, but only for content purchases, not for subscription rentals. C'mon...the service providers and their content rights-holding partners need some means of managing your access to subscription material (in terms of variables such as number of playback devices, number of playback iterations, duration of playback access until service re-activation is necessary, etc) per the rental/subscription agreement you agreed to when you signed up for the service. Without DRM, there's no means of doing this. While I tend to believe that folks are inherently altruistic and honest, all it takes is one 'bad apple' with a server and a BitTorrent tracker link...