Just spent LOTS of money on the Grades 7 & 8 Piano 2007-2008 Exam Pieces CDs.

Was looking forward to listening to them while at work, but imagine my disappointment when they turned out to be unreadable on my PC. Given absolutely no warnings from the reseller it turns out that ABRSM is committing falsehood in advertising and issuing crippled CDs. Don't know yet if they will work on my old CD player at home, but I shouldn't have to and I do wish I had my money back right now.

If you want to know how the pieces sound you should have your teacher play them or download them from websites intended for this purpose, but don't give money to the ABRSM to support them in their consumer-unfriendly practices. You also might want to join me surfing for alternative examining organisations; apparently there are lots of options out there.

You would think that an educational institution would want to instruct the principles of respect and personal responsibility rather than the cynical message of "our own students can't be trusted."

Yes, this seems to have caused problems for a few people. Have a look at this thread for a few hints on how to get to listen to the music you've paid for:

http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopic=16793&hl=

They play on my pc just fine!

I don't see what's so wrong with ABRSM protecting their financial interests anyway and those of the musicians who play on the CDs and the composers who are still entitled to royalties. You might not be intending to rip anyone off, but there are plenty of people who do. If it's not financially worth ABRSM's while to produce the CDs, then they won't do it and as someone who tends to learn by ear rather than sight that would put me right up a gum tree! There's nothing wrong with saying some students can't be trusted, simply because it's true! Why should they get the benefit of someone else's efforts and financial outlay for nothing. It's not individual or personal. Hopefully someone will come up with some sort of software soon that means people can make digital copies, but only to one player or something.

There is a sign on the front of the 2007/8 CDs that shows a PC with a cross on it and on the back it quite clearly states they cannot be play on CD ROM drives (ie: a PC).

That said, I am miffed as well because I listened to my Grade 2 stuff at work and am now wondering whether to buy the Grade 3 CD at all. ABRSM might have lost a customer by doing this.

Unfortunately when you buy things mail order you don't see the actual CD until it has been paid for and shipped to you. Last season's CDs were normal ones so I had no reason to assume that ABRSM would change the product. I think that ABRSM (and any other company) should ensure that the product sales information clearly indicate when a CD is being purposely crippled or limited in utility. Otherwise it amounts to a deceptive trade practice that hurts the paying customer while (referring to the other link) the truly devious players out there will still apparently be able to make their illegal copies.

Technology exists to make printed paper uncopyable. Wonder if ABRSM uses that in their publications now for consistency sake; I will have to try copying a page from my music book tonight while trying to get my handicap CD to play. Maybe the photocopy will be rendered useless due to big letters showing up on the copy stating: "WRONG! YOU HAVE TO MEMORIZE YOUR PAGE TURN!"

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to respond to some of the very strong feelings expressed on this thread, by posting the reply that I made to another similar thread in the Adult Learners forum.

Firstly, thanks for posting your views and opinions on our Selected Piano Exam Pieces CDs. We are reading and taking on board all your comments.

However, I thought it important that we address the concerns that you have voiced so far and so have had a word with Leslie, our Director of Publishing.

For those of you who are interested to know why we have taken this step, we'd like to make you aware that the vast majority of the CDs we produce are actually loss-makers for our Publishing Company.

Over the years, we have become aware of increasing piracy of our CDs through home-copying. The introduction of copy-protected CDs is an attempt to reduce that piracy and to protect our cost margins on these products so that we can afford to continue to make these recordings for the benefit of teachers and students.

As always, we take on board any feedback and comments that we receive on our products and services however, we do not believe we have been misleading.

For customers buying their CDs from a music shop, we have ensured that the packaging is clearly marked. For customers buying from our website, we've included a statement alongside all 8 discs that reads 'Please note - Copy Protected CDI, cannot be played on ROM drives.' Furthermore, on all of our publicity we have made sure that we clearly state that the discs will not play in ROM drives.

The only place where this information might not be marked is on other retailer websites or publicity material over which we have no control.

Please note that if you are unhappy with our policy or with your purchase, we're happy to take them back and happy to refund your costs. (Please post them to Publishing, 24 Portland Place, London W1B 1LU with a note of your costs.)

I hope that this addresses your queries and concerns.

Best wishes

Christine

Thankyou Christine, that's very decent of you .

If I could make one suggestion that might help keep everyone happy: make the CDs available electronically through something like iTunes:

• iTunes tracks have Digital Rights Management to handle the anti-piracy;
• If people get them through iTunes, they can be listened to their computers and iPods;
• The high-cost of the CDs in countries like New Zealand is avoided - no shipping charges.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to the powers-that-be about this issue .

What an excellent suggestion. And if not Itunes another Downloadable Format that can be purchased (legally) from the web.

I'd be quite happy to do that, that way we can select the pieces we need, hear them on the particular media we want and as jod and YAP mentioned, no crazy postage costs. Working from home and without a car means it's a real hassle getting materials or having to wait several days for orders to come through. A download would make things instant and perhaps cut production costs? As a teacher of two instruments it can really add up if you wanted all the CDs, particularly when they are changed with each session it can be as bad as keeping up with football strips!
Thanks for your repsonse Christine!

Charges should reflect the fact that you are likely to make copies on CD rom for your pupils though. But these are for "practice purpose" only so surely that does not count as piracy.

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I think it's ok to allow a student to listen to a CD at a lesson but not to give them a copy of it. I know of teachers who copy exam CDs for their students and charge them £5 a time - NOT ABRSM CDs I hasten to add. This is definitely wrong.

CDs are fine by me, but I'll miss not being able to play some pf the pieces on my iPod. Hopefully the idea of downloadable exam pieces will take off.

That is an excellent idea!
As well as anything else, it would mean that it would be possible to just download the ones you wanted/needed, or to just download the piano accompaniments if you did not want the performances. I know I would be many times more likely to buy them if I could pick and choose and get what I needed, or choose to buy all, rather than have only one option, to spend a lot of money on the whole package.

which pianists are playing in the cds this time?

And if they were available on itunes, there would be a large crossover into people who don't do the exams, but play the same repetoire. I live in the US, and I know that if they were available here, a lot of music would be purchased. Especially the piano parts.

Download? Where from?