Caltrops - No Stairway to Heaven





	[quote name="Commander Tansin A. Darcos"]Jonsey tried to use an on-line music service to download a record, and had problems downloading the copy he had legitimately paid for. When he gives up because of website problems he commiserates about his expected trouble in getting a $9.95 refund from Paypal. He then asks, "Why buy music anymore?" So, let's look at that question, "Why buy music anymore?" For back list material, that is, songs over a year old, there really isn't a good reason to do so. I will propose to say that if a song is a year old it's available on YouTube. Another reason being on older records, the artist isn't getting a dime, the record company gets everything. And buying music on CD or DVD is "old school." what we want is the music in a format playable on computers, cellphoines, or digital file players. I can think of one important reason. So, supposedly, the reason we buy music is it's new and we want to support the artists who made it. This is especially important if the group is not doing live performances or you can't get to them. Beyond YouTube there are music streaming services, you pay maybe $10 a month and can listen to a large collection of songs. There are also "radio station soundalikes" such as Music Choice and XM/Sirius, which are often available as part of the monthly bill for cable or satellite TV services. Unless your interest is a very narrow range of music selection there is very little need to pay for it. Let's also realize, purchasing music is relatively new, perhaps going back 100 years to when it was possible to capture sound in a fixed medium. The ability of musicians to play songs live goes back as far as we've had musical instruments, probably a couple thousand years. So right now, as I see it, the only reasons to buy music any more is to support artists you do like either by purchasing tickets for their live performances, or, for independent artists, to buy their songs in physical or download format directly. [/quote]