Sound issues-no sound from cd players

[tripolar <tripolar@comcast.net>]

$ playsound english.au > /dev/dsp
did work then I tried cd players again- both gnome & kde cdplayers. each
cd player picked up my music cd but played no sound.
I then tried to listen to linus again $ playsound english.au > /dev/dsp
this time "bash: /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy"
this is what fuser shows
# fuser -v /dev/dsp

                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/dsp             suley      2025 f....  artsd
                     suley      2080 f....  artsd
ok did 
#killall artsd
now playsound works again
what am i missing to get cdplayers to play sound?