Music lovers are the direct beneficiaries of the industry’s move away from DRM, which gives them a legal way to purchase songs without limiting them to playback on only certain supported devices. While this is undoubtedly a good thing, the transition is likely to bring some additional inconveniences for consumers.

Such is the case with Wal-Mart customers, after the giant retailer announced plans to pull the plug on its DRM servers – and inevitably leave those who bought DRM-packed songs from their online store with the laborious task of burning all of their tracks to audio CDs, or run the risk of losing the lot. The rather predictable announcement comes just a year after Wal-Mart started selling DRM-free songs, and follows similar moves from Yahoo and Microsoft.