I don't know why everyone is surprised by SonyBMG's attempts at selling DRM free music.

Sony have prided themselves on screwing up digital rights from the second they invented the MiniDisc. Why would they do anything different now?

Sony recently pledged to become the last of the four majors to begin selling digital music without DRM.

But, rather than allowing their tracks to be sold on an online music store such as iTunes, Amazon MP3, Napster or something new they wrote, they're asking you to do the following:

• Go to a physical store
• Buy a card with some kind of password on it
• Go home
• Turn on your computer
• Go ... somewhere? Webpage?
• Enter the password
• Download the music

It's very likely that music buyers will require a special piece of software to allow the downloading of SonyBMG music. It won't be a simple webpage.

I also doubt the digital music will be much, if any, cheaper than a physical CD. Further, it will only be around 30 titles in 5 stores.

Why, when you've gone to the effort to go to the store, wouldn't you just buy the CD? At least then you could listen to it when you're driving home. And, when given the choice between only digital and a CD (which is both physical and digital) wouldn't everyone pick the CD which they could then go home and rip?

I'm speechless.