Operation Manual

NOXON iRadio Cube
44 ENGLISH
9.4 Managing and playing DRM audio files
Where will I encounter DRM?
DRM (Digital Right Management by Microsoft) is a solution by the music industry for
protecting digital contents against piracy. At the cost of sometimes painful compro-
mises in consumer friendliness, the market has agreed on this method: digital rights management defines
how often a piece of music can be burned to a CD or stored on an external computer. Or, in the worst case,
how long you can listen to a track. The fact that the DRM protection has been developed by Microsoft pro-
vides are a number of advantages for the customer: better interoperability between devices and greater
competition between content platforms. Each standardisation has its advantages and disadvantages.
DRM audio content can be found on virtually all platforms that support online music purchasing. Portals
such as Musicload (musicload.de) or the Napster subscription service (napster.com) use this form of pro-
tection. A wide range of commercial Internet radio stations also use DRM to avoid licensing disputes with
the music industry.
Incidentally, there is no DRM protection for the MP3 format.
And now? How does DRM work with the NOXON?
The NOXON is well-suited for DRM content, as it supports the most common DRM standard in version 10—
Microsoft Windows Media DRM 10 (for WMA audio files). To allow the NOXON to play DRM content, you
need server software capable of the following:
verifying that the tracks were legitimately purchased and the licenses are valid
providing tracks for playback on DRM-enabled devices
managing the capabilities and rights of the playback devices
The NOXON supports the prescribed disabling of the digital output to prevent lossless copying. When listen-
ing to DRM content, it may therefore be necessary to use an analogue connection in addition to the digital
line.
Another effect is that the NOXON will remain silent if it encounters a DRM method it doesn't support. At
present, the NOXON supports DRM10 only. Thus it is not possible to play tracks purchased at the iTunes
Music Store, for example.
Please note: when it comes to DRM, the NOXON is absolutely passive. It will not infect existing files with
DRM or make any other changes to played content under any circumstances.
As was explained above, DRM-protected contents are made available by the server software. Since the
strengths of TwonkyMusic are not in this area and Digital Rights Management has not been implemented
(though this may soon change with a new version), we would like to provide you with a few more details
about Windows Media Connect—an alternative to TwonkyMusic that does include DRM and consequently
is capable of playing back DRM-protected contents! Windows Media Connect is a free Microsoft UPnP
server.