I’ve been told by friends that know my music tastes that I’d really enjoy Coldplay. (Mind you, it’s not like I’ve never heard the band, but all I have heard is the songs that get playtime on Boston radio.) It appears, though, that Coldplay has included in their latest album an entire list of things you’re not allowed to do with it, a list which includes a ban against converting the songs to MP3s (meaning you cannot load it onto your iPod or into iTunes). It also warns you that the technology used to “protect” the CD might prevent it from playing in a whole slew of everyday CD players… and the best thing is that this whole list is on the inside of the jewel case, and inaccessible to buyers until after they’ve forked over their money. (On the album’s Amazon page, it turns out that there are a few reviews warning against this very thing.)

It’ll be so nice when bands and their labels come together to stop screwing consumers. Is there any doubt that the simple existence of a vibrant MP3 player market has driven a huge amount of interest in music? What would possess labels to turn their back on all these potential consumers? (Of course, the reason that Coldplay’s restricted-use list appears inside the jewel case is that, were it to be in plain sight on the outside, there would likely be a lot less people buying the album… so in the end, the labels hope that consumers are just too uninformed to know about the screwing until after it’s been done.)