Download, and be damned, darnit

I have not, until just now, joined the download revolution. There are numerous reasons - some practical, some political, some emotional, some downright illogical.

In a nutshell:

• When I buy music, I need the tactile gratification of something in my hands, even if it is just a CD with text I can hardly read


• I resent all this DRM stuff. I want to be able to play the mp3 on whatever computer or portable device I want. After all, I paid for it


• There is something in perusing the CD collection in search of the next play, looking at the titles and covers, which you cannot get from a list on a computer screen. This is just like buying books from the shelves of a bookshop - amazon cannot fully replace this browsing


• If you download, you don't get lyrics, production credits, photographs, and the band's inane dedications


• If you don't like it, you can't resell it on e-bay

Despite this, I think I have found a downloading home, and whilst it will not stop me buying CDs, I have started down the slippery slope of a totally virtual music collection.

eMusic.com has no DRM on their mp3s. The downloads are pretty inexpensive - 40 tracks per month for 10 dollars, which works out about 15 British pence each.

Most importantly, then have a lot of stuff I like. At these rates, they seem to have done deals with minor or small labels only. So you can't get Coldplay's latest tosh. My first downloads were Arcade Fire, Roger McGuinn and the Pernice Brothers. These complete albums were free in the joining up deal. I am considering Big Star, Bloc Party and Eels.

There's lots of fancy coding going on behind the scenes as well - so there are recommendations based on your purchases, reviews, etc.

Yeah, they've got me.