Well, the thing is that $1 per song is about right for a CD, give or take. But with a CD you get data that's full-bandwidth and not inflicted with any real restrictions as to where you can play it. From the Apple Store, I cannot play it but on one computer (which has to have iTunes installed, so forget about any OS other than Windows or MacOS) nor any device other than an iPod (no ideas about if other hardware vendors would have access to their DRM even if they supported AAC-- probably not). So for the same price as an album (again, give or take) you get songs that potentially don't sounds as good that you can play play in certain circumstances instead of ones that sound as good as are available that you can play anywhere.