No Music -- iPod issues

So, my iPod just decided today to stop playing after an hour and when I did a "warm reset" it decided to not see the music stored on it anymore, so it now is acting like it's empty. No biggie -- I'll just download everything back onto it tonight, but I hope it's not a harbinger of Issues.

Wait a minute. What am I talking about? I got the extended warranty on it for three years, I think. So if it's broken, I take it back to Best Buy and get a new one, minus some sort of depreciation, I think. So perhaps I should root for it to be suffering from major Issues? Although I was hoping to be able to wait till the long-rumored model that will be one big color touchscreen interface.

So the music industry is putting more pressure on Russia to shut down Allofmp3-- The problem is that Russia will eventually shut down Allofmp3, because the government will do whatever the industry wants, but the supposed free market really is being stymied, as usual, by corporations. The fact that Allofmp3.com is so successful shows that people are willing to pay for their music. The only problem is that people are willing to pay $1 an album if it's in electronic format, but not $1 a song. And as much as the industry suits don't like it, most of what they sell isn't worth much more. If they made albums $4 or $5 an album, I think you'd see music sales soar along with profits. People know that many things they download are disposable songs that aren't worth $1/song. That's why they won't pay $1/song. I belong to eMusic.com and pay $10 a month for 40 songs. That's 25 cents a song. That's reasonable, I think. That's why I've been a member of eMusic for years at that price/song.

Apple's iTunes is a nice format and nice software, but the prices at the iTunes Music Store are just stupid. At $10 an album you can get most of the same music in many times better quality, for the same price, in a real CD. iTunes touts their billion+ songs sold but it's a drop in the bucket. CDs still reign.

And you know what else? Even when you buy CDs you get BURNED. Sony, for instance, a company that was once great and is now quickly destroying itself, at least as far as music goes, has the evil "Dual Disc" format. Now, I saw the new Bruce Springsteen album at Starbucks and bought it. But "Dual Disc" won't play in a Mac because "Dual Disc" is not compliant with CD standards. And it's SOny. You know damn well it's on purpose. Why should I spend $16 to get shafted by Sony selling me a product that a perfectly good computer can't even read?

The bad-faith that Sony is practicing is insane, because it can't be helping them keep customers. I am NEVER going to buy a Dual Disc CD again from ANY label because I have no clue which CD it will play in and which it won't and I'm not willing to spend a day running around experimenting.

What's most bizarre is that by purchasing this CD legally I was subjected to more CRAP than the people who 'bought' it from allofmp3.com for a buck or just stole it from BitTorrent. Having a trouble-free listening experience shouldn't be harder for honest consumers than for thieves!

So I fired off angry letters to Starbucks, where I bought it, and Sony, and I complained about the format at Amazon.

And how will I end up hearing this CD? Well, I'll probably download it from allofmp3! I'll be able to listen to what I paid for. Imagine that. So you go, allofmp3! Sell your ten cents a song albums as long as you have breath! At least until I can get to you and download The Seeger Sessions.