Yes, I know that the title to this post has no relation to a language, real or imagined. It’s about Music, and Purchasing Music.

As a person much less well-off than I am now (not saying I’m well off now, just I was worse then), I justified piracy by saying “I wasn’t going to buy it anyway.” Then as I gained a little more in the way of disposable income, I justified it by “The record companies aren’t playing fair, so why should I?” I still think this is a valid justification, by the way. However, I also viewed that once I had proper cash, I should make an effort to purchase music if possible and if reasonably fair.

Enter iTunes. The DRM on the $0.99 songs isn’t very tough to crack, the songs are reasonably affordable ($1 will get you two songs on a jukebox in Manhattan. $1 to get one song with unlimited plays is fine by me), you get to listen to the first 30 seconds of any song, so you’re not stuck with something unfun, and EMI announced a deal letting their whole catalog on iTunes be available without DRM for $1.29 each. It’s not bad, even in light of my standing beefs with Apple (to be commented on later, possibly).

Could I be using this to justify my purchase of Mika’s Love Today via iTunes? Perhaps. However, I don’t mind that I spent the money. I do enjoy the song very much, and voted with $1 to let some corporate person know I like it as well, so perhaps they can figure that good music has to keep coming down the pipe.

Categories: Geeky Peawee, Life of Peawee, Political Peawee