Get Loaded? No Thanks

I wasn't too impressed by all those buymusic.com ads, which seemed to alternate between incompetent parodies and shameless rip-offs of the Apple Music Store ads. Now that I've read some reviews of the service, I'm even less impressed. For one thing, I would never buy music that has as many restrictions as the Windows Media Audio files being sold by buymusic.com. I'm even weary of the AAC files that Apple sells. Even though they are much less restrictive than the WMA files, they are still not as flexible as mp3s. I know that people have claimed that AAC files offer better audio quality and compression compared to mp3s, but I can't tell the difference between 160kbps mp3s and CD tracks and I still have almost 9 gigs of free space on my iPod, so I don't think AAC files will provide any real benefit to me.

Frankly, all this Digital Rights Management shit is just that, shit. The music labels just don't get it. There is no need for me to repeat all the most common objections to the RIAA's heavy-handed tactics because everyone has heard them multiple times already. I will, however, relate my own experiences with P2P networks. I think they are fucking awesome because if I hadn't been able to download and sample songs for free, I would never have been willing to take a gamble on kick ass albums like Bjork's "Selma's Songs," Aimee Mann's "Lost in Space," and Coldplay's "A Rush of Blood to the Head," to name just a few. I'm even shelling out ridiculous amount of money to see Bjork in concert (and possibly Aimee Mann too). Because of Kazaa and Shareaza, I am much more likely to spend money on music. I just wish the record industry could recognize the full potential of digital music distribution.