Holy crap, BuyMusic.com sucks
If you’ve had the misfortune of using BuyMusic.com’s download service, you’ve likely had an experience similar to mine.
I needed to learn the old Neil Young/ Buffalo Springfield song ‘Flying on the Ground is Wrong’ for a gig. Lacking a CD or LP copy, I decided to try to find a download of it on the web.
I have an eMusic account, and have never had a single problem with it. But eMusic didn’t have the original track, so I Googled it, and found that BuyMusic.com had the track for $.99. No problem. I paid a buck, checked out, downloaded their little download manager, and downloaded the track.
Right off the bat, something was wrong. It saved the file as a .wma file rather than an MP3, and never let me specify the format I wanted. But it got far worse almost immediately.
When I tried to play the track, it prompted me for a user name and password. This pisses me off to no end. I’ve already paid for the track–why the hell do I need a user name and password to play a music file that I own?
But what was far, far more irritating was that, upon entering my user name and password to download a ‘license’ for my machine, their little download manager crapped out and displayed an error message.
It offered a link to support, which I clicked.
Just like everything else in their system, their support page sucks. It just links to their generic Buy.com suppport page, and I could find nothing on their site that addressed my problem. I sent them an email, asking why I was unable to play tracks that I had just purchased, and, of course, received no response.
Here’s a message to all those scumbags in cahoots with the RIAA: stop treating your paying customers like criminals. P2P is destroying the music industry? Good fucking riddance.
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Here’s BuyMusic.com’s canned response to my inquiry. Further evidence of their suckiness, if you ask me.
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Hello Kenneth Rainey,
Thank you for contacting Buy.com.
This is in reference to your email regarding the order #23115931.
We sincerely apologize for any difficulties that you are facing with
your music downloads. We have investigated your order in an effort to
assist with these problems and we have reset your licenses to allow for
you to download your music again. Because we do not know the exact
configuration of your computer, it is difficult to ascertain exactly why you
have been unable to download your music. Before attempting to download
those particular song(s) again, please double-check each of the
scenarios given below to ensure that this problem does not occur again.
1. Please ensure that you are using Windows Media Player 9.0 or newer
to play, burn or transfer your downloaded music. Other media players or
burning software may not have the ability to decrypt the digital
license associated with your music downloads. Often, if Windows Media Player
is not used, the digital license associated with your song will become
corrupt.
2. You may be behind a firewall that has not been properly configured
to allow access to and from Buy.com. If you are behind a firewall, for
the purposes of downloading music, please disable the program or
configure the program to allow access to and from Buy.com.
3. Often, when a user is encountering a licensing error, but has not
yet been able to listen to the song, the problem stems from the use of
pop-up blockers, adware/ spyware removal programs and download
accelerators. We suggest that you disable any of these such programs before
attempting to download your song and license again.
4. There may be a problem if you are using Windows 95 or 98 First
Edition. Windows 95 and 98 First Edition are not compatible with our
website. You will also need Internet Explorer 5.5 or newer. To resolve this
issue, we request you to upgrade your operating system to Windows 98
Second Edition or newer and upgrade your browser to Internet Explorer 5.5
or newer.
5. In some cases the DRM component of Windows Media Player 9 on your
computer is corrupt or missing. This may occur if you have replaced any
hardware components on your computer. As a result, existing licenses on
your computer may not work correctly, or it may be impossible to
acquire new licenses. To resolve this issue visit:
http://drmlicense.one.microsoft.com/Indivsite/indivit2.htm
Follow the instructions that appear on your screen to update the
security component of Windows Media Player.
After following these instructions, please download your song(s) again
by following the steps below. For best results, we suggest that you
delete any copies of the problem song(s) before downloading your music
again.
1. Close Windows Media Player.
2. Go to http://www.Buy.com and log in to your ‘My Account’ using your email
address and password.
3. Click on the order number you are having problems with. Do not click
on the button that says “View My Downloads”. This is just a visual
reference of your download history.
4. Once you are looking at the order you were having problems with,
please click the button that says “Download” next to the songs that are
not playing.
5. The Save As dialog box should display. Choose the default (Example:
C/Desktop/MyDocuments/MyMusic/Downloads).
If the Save As dialog box does not appear, turn off the Media Bar’s
display of online media content on the Advanced tab in the Internet
Options dialog box of Internet Explorer by following these steps:
To check your Internet Explorer settings:
1. In the tools menu, select Internet Options.
2. In the Internet Options dialog box, click on the Advanced tab.
3. In the Advanced tab, scroll down to Multimedia.
4. Under Multimedia, select the box next to “Don’t display online media
content in the media bar”. Please put a checkmark in that box.
5. Click the “Apply” button along the bottom of the Internet Options
dialog box, then the “OK” button.
If you need to locate your song for future reference, please note the
following:
From inside Windows Media Player, click on the Media Library button. If
it’s your first time, click Yes to search for media. Under Search
Options, in the Look In field, click Browse. If you downloaded your music to
your computer under C:\Desktop\My Documents\My Music\downloads, then
browse to that file and double click the appropriate music file ending in
.wma.
You can also use the Search button in the Windows Explorer navigation
bar. In the Search field, type *.wma since all music files you download
from Buy.com end in the extension wma. If this does not work, you may
also try to search for the artist name or song title.
Please feel free to contact us again for further assistance.
Thank you again for writing to Buy.com.
Sincerely,
Buy.com Customer Care Team
http://www.Buy.com
Comment by Kenneth Rainey — 6/20/2005 @ 7:36 pm
I have the same fucking problem. In my case, I bought from Buy.com as they have baught buymusic.com. I’ve not been able to resolve the issue yet. Maybe I’ll ask them to reset the license
Comment by Mike — 2/9/2007 @ 9:27 am
I’ve had the same experience. I have gotten the same email replies and error messages. I have requested all my money back but I don’t hope to see that happen. I couldn’t even purchase new music and play it. I am thoroughly disgusted and I will never buy music online again.
Comment by Carol — 4/4/2007 @ 11:59 am
If you bought music tracks from Buy.com and the tracks won’t play because the media player is “unable to acquire the licenses”, or tells you there are errors with the licenses or something like that… Most probably it’s because it’s Buy.com’s fault and they do not want to admit it. And if you try to get tech support, now they charge you to tell you it is not their problem even though it is. (Call 1-800-800-0800 for free support). So, stop calling and emailing tech support at Microsoft (like they’re telling you to) because it is not their problem or a problem with your computer or even your own computer skills… its THEM. How do I know? I figured out their mistake and was able to finally acquire the “licenses”.
They kept telling me it was because my computer did not have DRM or there was a problem with it or the IE. But, how could this be if I can play other DRM-protected files… all of them, but the ones from Buy.com. So, since I paid for the tracks and did have the rights to play those songs in my computer, I tried to crack the tracks. Of course, I wasn’t able to because I couldn’t play the tracks to then bypass the protection. But, in the process I did find out what is wrong with them. Buy.com used to have another site to download music, Buymusic.com. So, when the WMP tried to acquire the licenses, the WMP did so by accessing http://secure.buymusic.com/dominion/auth.asp. The problem is that since they migrated everything to Buy.com, not all the tracks’ licenses were properly reconfigured to then access the new site where the media player is supposed to acquire the proper licenses: https://secure.buy.com/licenser/licenseInfo.aspx. Many tracks are redirected automatically to the new site, but many others aren’t. So, what’s the solution:
1. Go to your Buy.com account and get the sku numbers of the tracks. When you review the details of your purchase, like if you were going to download them, there’s a table and the first thing on the table is that sku number.
2. Type this address in the IE and add at the end the sku number, right after the “=”. https://secure.buy.com/licenser/licenseInfo.aspx?sku= (sku number). For example, if the track sku number is 123456789, then the address should read https://secure.buy.com/licenser/licenseInfo.aspx?sku=123456789
3. When you do that, the website will ask you for your email address and Buy.com password, and when you login the WMP will FINALLY acquire the “licenses”, which are not real licenses, just a VERY limited authorization to play the tracks.
Comment by Maribel — 12/4/2007 @ 3:09 pm
Maribel, Thank you! I have been searching for a solution to this problem, and was convinced it was a WMP problem or connection problem somehow. Thank you!!
Comment by Jim — 2/5/2008 @ 8:30 pm
Thank you Maribel! I had the same problem. I followed your instructions and was able to get my license.
BUY.com has not to my e-mail and it has been 24 hours now.
Comment by Clark — 3/19/2008 @ 10:44 pm
Maribel, you just saved me hours of time!!! Thanks for the use of your knowledge.
Comment by Troy — 4/1/2008 @ 4:15 pm
Not only could I not download the music right away b/c of some error that was nonspecific. but I was unable to acquire the license for one of the tracks. I’ll never use buymusic again.
Comment by Frank — 4/8/2008 @ 10:10 pm
I had the same experience. How difficult can the music industry make enjoying a single music track?
Comment by Steve Leyndyke — 5/2/2008 @ 6:57 am
I had the same problem. However, the fix by Maribel did not work for me. After a lot of hassle, I got buy.com to refund my money. I went to Amazon and downloaded the cd. IT WORKED WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS!!
Don’t use buy.com, they suck.
Comment by Grant — 5/7/2008 @ 3:26 pm
I was probably out of my mind when I bought 10 songs from them without doing a test buy first. Anyway, it is outragous that for this kind of bugs to be there for a company that tries to compete with Amazon. How in hell this site is still in business is a wonder or miracle, I would not recommend anyone to buy anything from buy.com with a gun point to my head. I then tried Amazon for same song and no problem whatsoever. Maybe we should contact Google to tell them that it is a travesty that the buy.com shows up on top of the search list for buying mp3 since they sucks ass hard.
Comment by Yan — 6/19/2008 @ 9:53 am