Customer Reviews

Nothing Is Sound

5 star:		(121)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

I'd just like to say, that if you're thinking of buying this CD to put in your computer... don't. Go to the "DualDisc" CD of Nothing is Sound... bacause the DualDisc DOESN'T have the CopyProtection.

Another thing... don't think that Switchfoot did this on purpose. On the band's website forum, Tim Foreman (bassist for Switchfoot) spoke out:

"Hello friends,
my heart is heavy with this whole copy-protection thing. Many PC users have posted problems that they have had importing the new songs (regular disc only, not the dual disc) into programs such as Itunes. Let me first say that as a musician AND as a music fan, I agree with the frustration that has been expressed. We were horrified when we first heard about the new copy-protection policy that is being implemented by most major labels, including Sony (ours), and immediately looked into all of our options for removing this from our new album. Unfortunately, this is the new policy for all new major releases from these record companies. It is heartbreaking to see our blood, sweat, and tears over the past 2 years blurred by the confusion and frustration surrounding this new technology. It is also unfortunate when bands such as ourselves, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, etc... (just a few of the new releases with copy protection) are the target of this criticism, when there is no possible way to avoid this new industry policy.

For mac users these songs should import seamlessly. We are told that itunes is coming out with a new version for PC users in early November that will be compatible with all of these new CD's but in the meantime it's frustrating for all of us. That said, there are a number of solutions (as is always the case with these types of things) for importing the CD into your itunes and ipod. We have compiled some of the easier ways below. I feel like as a band and as listeners, we've all been through a lot together over the past ten years, and we refuse to allow corporate policy to taint the family we've developed together. We deeply regret that there exists the need for any of our listeners to spend more than 30 seconds importing our music, but we're asking as friends and partners in this journey together to spend the extra 10 minutes that it takes to import these songs, which we think you'll agree to be our finest collection of songs yet. As a band, we've always been known for having the best fans in the world and I know that will continue for years to come. A month from now, I hope to be singing these songs together at a show, and the extra time spent importing the music will perhaps be forgotten, or at least forgiven. Thank you for your understanding and the continued kindness that you have always shown for handsome dreamers from San Diego, we love you guys,

-tim foreman

A) If you're a mac user, or you have access to a mac, or you purchased the dual disc, you should have no problems... simply import the songs the same way as you always do.

B) If you're a PC user, and you haven't yet tried to import the the disk yet, download and install a free program called CDEX from http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/downloads.php. Now hold down the shift button while inserting the switchfoot CD (this disables the auto-run feature on the CD). Make sure that you hold it down until you are sure that nothing has run (maybe 60 seconds). Once the CD is loaded without auto-running it's software, open the CDEX program, and select tracks 1-12 (Lonely Nation-Daisy), excluding data tracks 13 and 14. THen select the top icon on the right side of the program "Extract CD tracks to WAV files". THis will extract them to your mymusic folder. Open iTunes and drag the .wav files you created into your itunes library, and you're done, and free to convert the songs into mp3, or whatever format you wish. (If you've already tried to import another copy protected CD like Foo Fighters, etc..., you may already have the protection software installed on your computer, and should go to plan C.

C) If you're a PC user, and you've already tried to import the the disk and accepted the auto-run installation, or don't mind accepting the auto-run installation, place the CD into your computer and allow the Sony BM audio player on the CD to automatically start. If the player software does not automatically start, open your Windows Explorer. Locate and select the drive letter for your CD drive. On the disc you will find either a file named LaunchCD.exe or Autorun.exe. Double-click this file to manually start the player.

Once the Sony BMG player application has been launched and the End User License Agreement has been accepted, you can click the Copy Songs button on the top menu.

Follow the instructions to copy the secure Windows Media Files (WMA) to your PC. Make a note of where you are copying the songs to, you will need to get to these secure Windows Media Files in the next steps.

Once the WMA files are on your PC you can open and listen to the songs with Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher (or another fully compatible player that can playback secure WMA files, such as MusicMatch, RealPlayer, and Winamp by dragging them from wherever you saved them into Windows media player. Once they are in the Windows media player playlist you can burn the songs to a standard Audio CD by right clicking on the songs and selecting "add songs to burn list." You can then burn the songs to a standard Audio CD. (Please note that in order to burn the files, you will need to upgrade to, or already have, Windows Media Player 9 or 10, which can be downloaded for free at [...] )
Once the standard Audio CD has been created, place this copied CD back into your computer and open iTunes. iTunes can now rip the songs as you would any normal audio CD."

Enjoy!

[Opinion] - This is part of the new Sony DRM scheme. It installs eXtended Copy Protection on your system and hides various files that are difficult to remove. These files also allow any Malware or nefarious code to hide themselves as well if they start with $sys$.

I love Switchfoot and have for a long time but if you want this album, buy the DualDisc instead (like I am) so that you can avoid Sony's Trojan Horse Rootkit software that's installed secretly as a Windows Driver without your permission, permanently degrades your PC performance and removes your PC's CD drive if you try to uninstall it.

This is the first time that I have felt compelled to write a review.

I saw that this was a copy protected CD before I purchased it, but I didn't relalize what that meant. Then it tried to install something on my computer, I did some research and with reservations I let it install.

All I want is mp3 files that I can add to my ipod and burn onto a mp3 cd for my truck stereo. No chance, I cannot convert these files to mp3 they have DRA technology, which prevents conversion. DRA stand for Digital Rights Management, but what is really means is that even though I purchase this CD, I cannot listen to it as I do my other CD's.

I will not purchase copy protected CD in the future and suggest you think long and hard before you do.

I do not copy music, everything that is on my iPod I have purchase, but now Sony is punishing the people that are actually
buying the CD's. They won't get my dollars again.

If someone knows how to convert these files I would like to know the secret.

Best regards,

Bret

The CD is just avg. in my opinion to some of their previous albums but please read this review before you buy or install the player software on your PC

Shame on you Sony!

For months, Sony has been bundling software with some of it's music CDs. When I bought Switchfoot's, "Nothing is Sound" CD I received this pop-up to install a special player software called XPC. I didn't install it and I'm glad I didn't...

XPC is not a virus, but a backdoor for virus and spyware. XPC is a rootkit type of software and should be removed it immediately. Here's all the background info and uninstall directions.

What software comes with my "Nothing is Sound" CD when I insert the disc into my PC?

When you first insert the "Nothing is Sound" CD into your PC you get a flash image which asks you to install a special player software, "XPC" in order to listen to the CD on your PC. XPC has a component in it called "rootkit." It's a program that is deeply embedded into your OS, is nearly impossible to find or detect, and even more difficult to remove. The rootkit program that Sony has been shipping is designed by a British company, First 4 Internet, and prevents users from making more than three backup copies of any XPC protected CD. XPC was bundled with the CD to prevent rampant piracy. By installing the software you are automatically agreeing to the EULA (End User License Agreement) which states that you understand that software will be installed on your PC and you may not remove it without consent from SONY.

What's the big deal?

The controversy stems from XPC being undetectable and difficult to remove. YOUR ANTI-VIRUS OR ANTI-SPYWARE SOFTWARE WILL NOT DETECT XPC! Hackers could potentially exploit and use the source code of XPC and design a virus or trojan that would go undetected by your anti-virus or spyware software. Furthermore civil rights and privacy protection advocates have stated that Sony did not adequately inform users of XPC and how to remove it.

What has Sony done about this so far?

Until Wednesday, Nov. 2nd, you had to e-mail Sony to receive instructions on how to remove the software, however from my understanding it still leaves traces of XPC in your registry so I question it's effectiveness and at the very least question Sony's corporate integrity. I believe Sony recently released the software patch to minimize the negative yet truthful media coverage while also minimizing legal and financial losses which may stem from a class-action lawsuit against Sony on behalf of user's whose PC's may be compromised in the future.

How do I remove the software?

Sony released a patch on Wed. Nov. 2, 2005 due to all the controversy and bad press it was receiving from computer enthusiast websites, magazines, and national media. You may click on the link below to go to Sony's website and remove the XPC software.

http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/updates.html

Note: As I understand it you may be unable to play XPC protected CDs once you uninstall the software. I'm not sure of this, as I did not install the XPC software that came with "Nothing is Sound" on my PC, not because I was aware of XPC and the security hole it creates, but simply because I do not support the Digital Rights Management (DRM) techniques used by record companies because I feel it's a flawed system. The protection of artists, and profits by record companies, should not come at the expense of limiting legitimate use by consumers and fans who buy legal music.

What can I do about this in the future?

You can write to Sony or call Sony and complain.

General SONY BMG: 212-833-8000
Arista Records: 646-840-5600
SONY BMG U.S. Latin: 305-695-3600
J Records: 646-840-5600
Jive Records: 212-727-0016
RCA Label Group Nashville: 615-301-4300
RCA Records: 212-930-4000
SONY BMG Corporate Press: 212-833-5047

You can also write the artists and share with them how unhappy you are with the bundling of software like XPC. However I doubt the artist's have much of a say in this matter but I figure it couldn't neccessarily hurt.

I hope you all found this helpful.

In Christ,
Cam

Want software installed on your computer that is not in your best interests? Avoid this CD like the plague!!

As many people may know by now, Sony was recently caught with egg on their face when a security specialist found out that a recently purchased CD (Van Zant: Get Right With The Man) from Sony music not only installed DRM software (digital rights management, to limit and outright prevent copying music to certain devices), but it did so in such a sneaky way that it hid itself entirely from Windows, and opened the system up to security issues such as viruses.

This CD has the same copyright protection, called XCP. When installed, Sony hijacks your computer and installs custom software which:

1) Hides itself entirely from Windows by installing as a rootkit
2) Hides itself in such a manner that any files begining with $sys$ are also hidden. For example, if you install the XCP copy protection software on your machine, and rename "document.doc" to "$sys$document.doc" it then becomes invivisble to you forever.
3) Installs its own custom CD-Rom drivers to hijack your system. It also sneakily names these drivers "Plug and Play Device Manager" to seem as if it's a part of Windows. Trying to delete these drivers manually will disable your CD-Rom drive entirely.
4) Offers no uninstall option until you manually contact Sony

As of my writing this review, Sony has "apologized" for this incident, and claims they will "re-evaluate" this copyright protection software on their CDs in the future.

In the meantime, a virus is currently running wild, which names itself begining with $sys$ in an attempt to hide from the user and virus scanners.

Several class action lawsuits are also pending against Sony right now.

In summary, as you can tell from above, Sony's actions here are absolutely horrible. This is your music. You purchased it, and they should not have any right to dictate how you can use it, let alone install software which compromises your system security.

This is one of the CDs with Sony's XCP copyright protection software on it, and as a result, you should not buy it to send a message to Sony that this will NOT be tolerated in the future.

This is a Copy Protected Sony CD. Beware, playing it on a Windows PC will very likely install a hidden hazardous program on your system that can be exploited by a virus according to F-Secure.

I love Switchfoot and have been following them from the days of their first cd's. I went out and got this album on the day it came out confident that I would not be dissapointed by their musical talent. What I found musically was exactly what I was hoping for: Catchy guitar riffs and melodies that you can't help but sing along . I love their message and their talent.

However, I do not think you should purchase this disc. I do not carry a cd player. I've had an iPod for years now. When I went to put this cd on my computer to transfer it, I saw that it was digitally protected and would only allow me to have the music in their protected .wma format. iTunes does not support such a format. While I was able to get these songs eventually in format so I could fully enjoy them, I've come to find that in putting the cd into my computer, Sony installed software called "malware" on my system. They, without my permission, started hidden applications (that cannot be deleted) that suck resources and spy on my actions. I agree with copy-protection, but crippling my operating system is too much.

In conclusion, GREAT ALBUM from an amazing band, but stay away from Sony BMG and their copy protected cd's if you value your computer's well being.

Sony's DRM (Digital Rights Management) copy protection software is installed upon insertion of this "audio" cd into your computer. The software is malicious and can ruin your pc to the point of having to format and reinstall everything. This software also sends information about your pc to a Sony server. Do you want Sony to have ALL your information? The so called "patch" that Sony makes available to fix this software does nothing! The software also allows for virus, spyware, and other malicious programs to hide themselves and operate without detection. Currently there are no virus scanners (Norton, Mcafee, etc.) that can detect this software or the viruses it can help hide. The same goes for spyware.