When I bought my phone I was excited about incorporating different functions into one device. I had never put music on my old phone because without a miniSD, it would have required the costly process of downloading songs directly to the phone.
However, this excitement was short-lived when I learned that LG CYON, in conjunction with music player dosirak, requires people to buy songs from the dosirak site, or pay to convert mp3 files to the unknown file extension .kmp. I hate this attempted monopolization; this is why I didn't want an iPod*, and why I would never buy a Sony camera: they create certain specifications which require customers to purchase exclusively from them or their lackeys. In a world of growing technological uniformity (phone charger pins, for example), I hope the public realizes that these companies should be avoided lest everybody suffer.
It's not that I'm poor (although I expect to be very, very soon). Nor do I condone pirating songs. But after purchasing the songs, I don't expect to pay extra for a conversion.
To further exacerbate any annoyances with this necessary conversion, .kmp files are virtually worthless: they can only be played on phones, unless one wishes to waste valuable time and precious memory downloading a .kmp player.
Back to my story. Despite this hiccough, things were going swimmingly until I, through unfortunate circumstances, lost my mp3 player in the Philippines. I was left with nothing but the k-pop on my phone, and one can handle only so much girl pop and pretty-boy bands before wanting to hurl the phone (or oneself) from the 24th floor.
I thought a bit about buying a new mp3 player. However, I'm not sure if my phone will work in the States, and if not, I would like to buy a haptic (assuming that phones in the US don't require special file extensions). I decided to put some more music on my phone.
Yesterday was a beautiful day, and I wanted to go for a walk. But as Hanna put it, "What's life without music?" What, indeed? I wanted to update my playlist, and I was so desperate to go outside that I was willing to shell out some cash to convert my songs.
After struggling with the dosirak site (all in Korean), I decided to find my own converter. I'll admit, I'm not the most tech-savvy monkey, but I decided to give it a shot. I google'd in vain. Apparently, while I can convert protected .wma's to mp3s, the .kmp is in a league of its own. Suddenly after hours of fruitless searching, an epiphany screeched into my brain.
When in Korea, do as the Koreans do. Here, in a hub of digital 'legal tolerance' and free downloads, why shouldn't there be converters from .mp3s to .kmp's? I couldn't find a converter simply because I was looking in the wrong place. If these CYON phones are designed to screw Koreans, of course Koreans would have found a way around. It was just a matter of searching in Korean.
My first search on Naver yielded results. I downloaded the converter program, and proceeded to convert my playlist to .kmp files. With a little miniSD action, I was on my way to enjoying my songs from the comfort of my own phone.
Take that, greedy buggers at LG CYON & dosirak!
Today's another beautiful day, and I'm going for a walk.
*The iPod/iTunes consumer cycle isn't the only reason why I didn't want to buy an iPod. I couldn't stand the American public's lemming love affair with a featureless circle. In my mind, it's merely troll dolls, virtual pets, the Spice Girls and Titanic all over again: more hype than substance.
In true American fashion, Apple popularized the mp3 player, leaving it to the Asians to draw in the details.
I've preferred less-hyped brands that offer more features, like my old Samsung K5. With touch controls and slide-out speakers, it was a much better option for an individual who prefers more than a name, or bright preteen colours.
12 comments:
You don't understand iPods at all.
-Austin
I know that iPods (along with every other player) have improved drastically since I've last shopped for an mp3 player. But last time I was looking it was nothing special.
But remember that last time I was looking, iPod encouraged use of iTunes store for purchasing based on the convenience of finding iPod compatible music. In turn, iTunes strongly encouraged the future purchase of iPods using its DRM protections. I know that Apple's removed the DRMs.
And thanks for taking time to comment on a blog when you can't take the time to answer a question I posed days ago, helpful
I think you know I own an 80GB iPod (and love it), but I'm not an Apple-head. I probably like the me-too aspect less than you do, but they got to where they are by being the best, especially where high-capacity is concerned. No competitor has remotely approached their higher models.
Apple is actually starting to suck rather than get better. The new Shuffle is even more of a turd than the old one, and it looks like they are trying to become more proprietary instead of
less.
But iPods have always played mp3 files. Complaining about the iTunes store (DRM aside) is silly; they don't force anyone to use it.
The problem with other mp3 players including leading brands like Sandisk and Samsung, is that while the hardware is often very cool and feature-heavy, their software and firmware is always shit. As a tech nerd, I could work around it and use alternative software, but for most people that would never fly.
iTunes (the software, not the store) has its quirks, but the song management and playlists are unsurpassed. Furthermore, it has the best, most consistent cover art library around. That makes it the killer app for me.
iPod tangent aside, kudos to you for sticking it to the man. I hate DRM and proprietary format bullshit (it gets even worse if you ever have to wrangle DHCP, the worst offender) - all it ever does is frustrate legal consumers who want the stuff they bought to actually function correctly under fair usage.
Sorry about taking awhile on the camera thing, did you find something you like?
My bad. Somehow when I was researching for a player years ago I was under the impression of limited compatability.
On the part of competition on higher-end models, I can't qualify or disqualify that because I know selection in the US is pretty limited, and I've never looked into high-capacity models; I guess I don't spend that much time in public transit or waiting rooms, lol
You're excited by an extensive cover art library? It's nice to see that somehow we inherited the same anal gene. Do you have all your music subcategorized by artist and album, or are you one of those sloppy 'dump music in any folder' types?
Still looking at specs for cameras. I've been too busy to really get down to it.
Neatly categorized, of course.
can you teach me how to convert the mp3 file?all i got is error.
Hi! I just wonder how do you use the korean converter to convert mp3 to kmp files? I also got a korean phone it's IM-U440S Sky phone, sheez and converting mp3 songs is shit >_< it's really difficult, I saw your blog and you posted about the program you use for converting it, I actually did the same thing but when I opened the dialogue box *just like the image in the naver website* it's not written neither in Korean nor English, it's only in questions marks *seems to be the characters couldn't be read* anyways I just dragged the mp3 file then it appeared inside the box, then I clicked the long rectangular button below and well there's dialog box popped-up and I don't what it meant to say, >_< then I ended up failing in converting the files. If it's ok for you can you help me about this situation? Thanks :) I would be very grateful for your help~...
Attribute not get the privilege, you can not play the files, any solution to it ....
Attribute not get the privilege, you can not play the files, any solution to it ....
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