I want to buy a CD right now. I’ve heard an artist I love, I want to hear more of it, and I can’t buy it online. Well, I possibly could (though as an artist on an Australian indie label they’re probably not exactly available through URGE or iTMS) but certainly not in any instantly-gratifiable way. Which is really the rub, isn’t it?
If I bought DRM’d music, I could have it now. If I wait a few days, I can have it DRM free. This applies as much to obscure artists on indie labels as it does to top 40 hits: even so-called ‘enhanced’ CDs are close enough to Red Book spec that you can rip the guts out of them to beautiful lossless FLAC files without much difficulty.
That’s what’s so bloody illogical about this whole conundrum: I can still get content in better-than-iTunes quality without DRM. I just can’t have it now.
Why not just let me have it now as an MP3 (OGG or FLAC would be nicer, but I’d settle for less ;-)) whilst I wait for the CD to arrive? What about this model doesn’t make sense? I would buy so much more music if licensers played to my at-computer (or, in this case, in-room at-radio) impulse buying tendencies. I doubt they’re ever going to get it.
Did someone say AllOfMP3?
Yeah… but it’s not legal anyway, so I may as well just get it off P2P and save my money. And, again, there’s the problem with slightly more obscure labels not being in global stores.
Define “not legal”
Not licensed in Australia, because the creators have sold their rights to rights-holders who license their content based on regions. Obviously it’s a grey area, but the fact is it’s not in line with what they consider fair use of their content and it’s their right to sue your ass for it, just as much as if you’d gone and downloaded it from peer nets’ instead. So download it from the peer nets and save your money and be just as exposed as you would otherwise be, shrug.
hmm… even if it is illegal, I’m still prepared to pay for the convenience of having complete, high quality files available immediately with high download rates and the convenience of desktop software or a web interface… it’s all worth it