I don't see this as the only way of getting music in the future. I still like the physical mediums too much.

You're right, of course. There will always be physical methods for distributing music. Direct downlod is the most efficient method, though, and will end up being preferred by a big segment of the population. And in some cases, as with independent artists, it will be the primary method of distribution. Fortunately, these days even independent artists with shoestring budgets can have audio CD's professionally duplicated for physical sale. The only reason to have record companies these days is the marketing machines that get the artists noticed. And even that is slowly changing...

Having a physical medium is a good way of ensuring a lightning strike or other electronics damaging event won't wipe out all copies of something.

The issue of backups is an important one, of course. But it's not much different from the physical-medium-loss issue. If I don't make a backup of an Audio CD, I can lose it to carelessness (scratching) or theft-- both of which have happened to me. In fact, I've lost more music to physical damage and theft than I have to computer failure.

Unless I had burned the They Might Be Giants MP3 album to CD, a lightning strike could have wiped out all my copies of it that I maintain on 3 different hard drives.

Interesting side point... As much as I am a fan of TMBG (and as much as I champion the idea of selling music that way), I didn't end up buying any of those tracks. The partial samples they had for download didn't thrill me too much. Which is really a great testimony in itself... Distributing music that way can allow me to choose which tracks I like or dislike. That way, you don't end up going through the old "buy a whole album just for one good song" thing.




Tony Fabris
Empeg #144