“Led Zeppelin has announced plans to make music from the band available online from mid-November,” Jonny Evans reports for Macworld UK.
“The band are another of digital music’s final holdouts. Beginning 13 November, the band’s original albums will be available for full-album or a la carte download from all online music retailers,” Evans reports. “Edgar Bronfman, Jr., chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group said: ‘In their 12 years together, Zeppelin created one of the most powerful, influential, and timeless bodies of work in the history of modern music. They not only enjoyed enormous commercial success, but their ground-breaking musical innovation transformed the cultural landscape. We have been planning for this landmark day for a long time, and we look forward to expanding Led Zeppelin’s presence across a full array of digital platforms.'”
Full article here.
This would be great if we hadn’t already ripped – back in 2001, no less – all of the Led Zep we’d ever want from CDs we purchased long ago. For extra clarity: We’re not paying you twice, Middlebronfman.
my first time hearing Zep was when I was about 8. It was “The Ocean” – that’s all it took.
I don’t get this online crap. Anyone that likes music, I mean LIKES, don’t they buy a disc or something physical? I have to have some physical format to fall back on. I want the full quality. I want to re-rip my collection when iPods get hundreds of gigs for higher quality listening experience.
anyway . . .
Who needs the Beatles when we can get Led Zeppelin?
LED ZEPPELIN ROCKS!!!!!
If Elvis is the King, Led Zeppeling is the goddam French Revolution!!!
(can you tell I’m a fan?)
Yes, their is a whole lotta love between me and the Zep.
I play The Lemon Song on my Apple Mac…..
until the juice runs down my leg.
I don’t like the idea of putting any more of my money in the labels’ pockets, so on the occasion when I want to buy a CD, I head down to my local pawnshops.
Most pawnshops have an ample and diverse supply of used CDs for very reasonable prices, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood crackheads and meth freaks who have sold everything they own (as well as many things they don’t) for their next hit.
Check it out, seriously. Where else can you get a real CD that you can rip over and over for less than $5.00?
Will I be able to get Hey Hey What Can I Say? I still only have that on 45 vinyl.
And if I can’t…. yet another reminder that we want to OWN music, not subscribe to it in the cloud.
(And should you hate this fairly indefinisble work… I’m sure everyone has a favorite that’s on a b-side or didn’t make it to a full album…)
At last. It’s been so long since I’ve heard the sound of dirigible.
YES!!!
I have been waiting for this day for several years now!
I more giant acquiescing to the iTunes juggernaut.
AG Pennypacker… Totally agree. I much prefer to buy physical CDs and rip as I please. As a result, I have a hardcopy backup, full resolution audio as my source, liner notes and complete album artwork, and total control and freedom with my music.
As much as I love Apple and the premise of the iTunes Store (I do dislike the practices of conventional record labels), I don’t really get why anyone would prefer to buy/own downloaded music? Yeah, it’s a little easier and convenient, but so much more limiting for (in most cases) not much savings.
I work in the music industry and have spent a lot of time in recording studios, so I know how much time and energy can be spent producing quality recordings. As I always say to people, if there wasn’t any sonic quality lost in compressed MP3/AAC (or whatever) files, they’d simply record and manufacture the final CD with compressed audio files and not bother with the non-compressed, full-resolution format.
Problem is – like most things in our instant gratification society – most people don’t give much priority to quality. Those people would just prefer cheap and convenient.
After all this time?
This idea will go over like a lead balloon.
Your name is apt-that IS totally pinche of you. The band isn’t getting your money that way either. Remember the band? The one without which you wouldn’t have a CD to buy at the pawnshop? ¿Que chinga, cabron? In Led Zeppelin’s case they probably don’t need the extra two dollars, but that’s not fair when you do it to the littler guys whose music you may enjoy.
Got the complete box set years ago, but still good news. Go listen to White Summer/Black Mountain Side right now. Just cause I said so. =)
Bow Down Before My Monster Riffs.
Led Zep
(made in China)
yeah, i agree, what kind of led head wants their music only on the internet. I for one need it on a disc…and as for Hey Hey What Can I Do, i’m not exactly sure when, but their coming out with a complete studio recordings box set…that includes EVERYTHING…its pretty cool. I know someone who works at the place that makes them so i got one ahead of time….
Au contraire, gonad breath.
The band got paid when the CD was bought the first time. If the original owner then chooses to sell the CD, that’s of no concern to the record label or to the band. Or to you, for that matter.
As a musician of 45 years who has spent time doing professional studio work in Los Angeles, I can assure you that I understand the musician’s viewpoint and I want the musician to get paid. I have spent untold thousands of dollars on music, going back to before the age of CDs, which is probably longer than you are old.
But what fractional percentage of my thousands of dollars actually lined the musicians’ pockets? Not much. And I won’t pay the labels any longer for their questionable contribution to the chain of ownership.
However, I will go to radiohead’s website and buy their album directly from them. I will also buy any other music I can obtain without having to pay the record labels’ middleman fees.
Don’t let the record companies get into your head about “perpetual rights” or any of that crap. Buying a CD is not a “license”, you own the CD and are free to do with whatever you like, including sell it if you so choose.
And if I choose to then buy it secondhand, so what? It’s no different than buying a used book, video or any other published work.
Ever bought a used book before? Pot, meet kettle.
Ever borrowed a book from a friend and read it, then passed it on to someone else?
Pot, meet kettle.
Ever borrowed a video on someone’s recommendation of “Dude, you gotta watch this!!”
Pot, meet kettle.
GW: even commercial CDs are compressed, are they not? That’s why they’ve trialled SACD, DVD-Audio etc. iTunes tracks might even be higher quality than your CD rips because they’re straight from the digital masters.
FINALLY !! I can now stop borrowing my dads cd starting today.
Ever f*cked a friend’s wife or girlfriend?
Pot, meet kettle.
not while she was with the friend. But once the friend cut her loose, she was fair game.
that’s a metaphor for a used CD… didja get it?
Big whoop… MDN Take is right on.
I feel the same way about the Beatles music online. Who cares?
If you want some better Zeppelin music, give Dread Zeppelin a try… Elvis, raggea, Zeppelin… what more could you ask for?
Ohhh….! I get it! You still think that every girl/CD is a virgin until you sleep with her.
(smiles slyly) Hey, have you met my sister?
MW choice
I like myself. I really really like myself.
That’s nice for you. Have a nice night. GO Rockies.
MW woman. how funny!
“Ever f*cked a friend’s wife or girlfriend?”
All at once.
MW: ‘come’ (i shit you not)
@ Connor MacBook…
Negative. Physical audio CD files are not compressed. Yes, they are limited in their storage capacity, and for a long time so (limited) was digital recording technology. As such, the standard audio CD is limited to 2-channel (stereo) audio at a 44.1kHz sampling rate and 16-bit resolution, and a maximum of 70 minutes/800 MB of storage. For years this was the best you could expect from a professionally made digital recording.
But now, digital recording technology has surpassed these limitations. In most professional recording studios today, digitally recorded tracking is done at a sampling rate of anywhere between 48 – 192 kHz and at 24-bit resolution, well beyond the capabilities of the conventional audio CD and standard CD players.
SACD and DVD Audio only provide newer technologies and capabilites to write/read this higher definition recorded audio, as well as the capacity for multi-channel audio mixes (surround sound) in a (still) uncompressed file format.
So, the higher quality (and capabilities) of SACD or DVDA come at the ability of greater technology and storage capacity, not because standard CD audio files are compressed. And the digital masters used to press conventional CDs, as well as compressed MP3/AACs ripped for retail download, are one in the same. No difference there.
Do you think warner music will cherry pick and not put LZ on iTunes?
The MDN magic 8-ball — awesome!
GW3: Thanks for clearing that up!
@GW3, Connor Macbook
GW3 is correct, CD audio format files are AIFF, which is an uncompressed format.
FWIW, I record in my home studio on a dual-G5 Power Mac using MOTU Digital Performer at 96KHz, 24-bit. With an upgrade to my audio interface, I could be recording at 192 KHz.
Point being, I can only hear the music at its full resolution by keeping it digital. If I burn it to an audio-format CD, I lose resolution due to downsampling to 44.1 KHz, 16-bit, even though the file is not compressed. And yes, the difference is like putting tissue paper in front of the tweeters on your speakers (obscure studio reference).
I think the days of audio-format CDs are numbered. High-quality digital audio has made it obsolete.
Too late Led Zepplin and The Beatles. You lost against the rippers, slashers and file trading sites while you played coy with your hallowed titles and held back.
I will NEVER buy your music. EVER.
@ macPinche
Correct in everything you write. By the time most modern recordings are pressed to CD, the downsampling has created a lesser (overall) quality recording. However, to clarify for those unaware, this is not the same as digital compression.
Unfortunately, most people never get to hear these better sounding “high definition” recordings – either because they haven’t access to a SACD/DVDA player/discs, or haven’t ever spent time in a high-end recording environment.
While I agree the higher definition digital recording technology has made standard audio CDs a bit archaic, I don’t agree that standard audio CDs have become obsolete to their better technology brethren. Like I said in my first post, if we’ve learned anything from this whole commercial Internet-based music distribution system, the trend is quality is not as important to (most) end users as is cost, file size, and portability. SACD is very impressive to listen to, but I have a difficult time seeing where it will ever replace standard audio CDs (as long as CDs continue to exist), largely because I don’t foresee anyone except audiofiles being willing to their spend money on new, non-portable playback hardware and more expensive physical SACD/DVDAs. There’s no way those two components become universally cheaper unless they become mainstream use by consumers, and the trend shows differently. Again, I say/believe this with a heavy heart – it’s definitely not MY wish.
@ GW3
> if we’ve learned anything from this whole commercial Internet-based music distribution system, the trend is quality is not as important to (most) end users as is cost, file size, and portability.
Very true. And let’s not leave out convenience, probably the single biggest contributor to the popularity of iTS.
You’re right. It’s like Beta vs. VHS; quality is simply not the primary consideration for most people. I retract my thought as wishful thinking… audio CDs probably have a long ways to go before they become out-and-out obsolete.
But I could see digital formats on CD becoming more popular, similar to how we can burn a disk full of MP3s.
In your experience, do many people know that they can fit 75-100 or more MP3-encoded songs on a single audio CD, if their CD player supports MP3 audio?
A few years ago, I did some noncritical, token tests. I ripped the same CD track as 128K MP3, 256K MP3, and 256K AAC. The AAC track sounded better to me, in terms of faithfulness to the original recording, although it was tough to distinguish much difference between the 256K AAC and the 256K MP3. They both sounded much, much better than the 128K MP3. I was really surprised by how grainy and harsh the 128K file sounded in comparison.
Size-wise, the 128K MP3 was 5.5 MB, and both the 256K versions were 10.8 MB. When you can buy a 320 GB SATA II drive for $100, that’s not much of a consideration.
I would never, ever buy a 128K MP3 from iTS again, not after hearing what 256K sounds like. It’s either 256K or rip from a CD for me.
I used to like Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly and the rest, but that was over 30 years ago. OVER.
@GW3: “I don’t really get why anyone would prefer to buy/own downloaded music? “
As I sit re-ripping my CD collection into iTunes for the second time (higher bit rate now that I have disc space) I have to provide an answer to your possibly rhetorical question. While I may have a complete set of Led Zeppelin on disc, I don’t have all songs I may want. I like the option of buying one or two songs off an album. Lets face it. Not every band is Zeppelin, where 90-100% of the album is pure gold. A lot of bands are one hit wonders. I appreciate the ability to buy their gold for 99¢ instead of $18 for an album of mostly throw-away “songs”. I already have to many CDs of that ilk.
Argh! Not to mention the sh*tty jewel cases!!! I’ve got 60 year old albums that are still in piece, but a third of my CD library has broken jewel cases. Hell, the fall apart when you tear off the celophane!!!
@ macPinche…
“But I could see digital formats on CD becoming more popular, similar to how we can burn a disk full of MP3s. In your experience, do many people know that they can fit 75-100 or more MP3-encoded songs on a single audio CD, if their CD player supports MP3 audio?”
This might come as a surprise to readers of this forum, but in my experience I find that most average computer users have a difficult enough time trying to figure out how to burn a CD, let alone know they have a choice of format when burning music files to CD. Even in an application as easy to use as iTunes. This isn’t to sound arrogant in my own knowledge, just simply my own observation with many of the people I regularly associate myself with.
I personally think that part of the problem with burning MP3 files to CD (even if you can get many, more songs on a single disc) is that you never know for sure how the person you’re giving the disc to will know what to do with it, or if the hardware they attempt to play the disc with is natively compatible with MP3s. Most of the time, I find it a lot safer to simply burn a regular audio disc than have to chance it or have to explain to people how to access the music.
To your point about compressed music file resolutions… I buy physical CDs, rip them to iTunes as both uncompressed AIFF files and as 256k AAC files. The AIFF files get used only for listening at home (my Mac Pro/iTunes, with redundant external storage, is connected to my stereo via digital fiber optic cable and converted to analog by the stereo preamp), and the AAC files are used only on my iPhone for portability. So in regard to portable files I, obviously, tend to agree with your listening observations. I don’t purchase any music via download, but I suppose I might consider it if they were ever to offered it as AIFF.
Nice exchanging thoughts with you. Good luck with your musical endeavors. Stay true with the sonic fidelity!
I bought the boxed set remasters and ripped everything onto iTunes, along with the CD albums. Oh well.
DANCING DAYS
Dancing days are here again as the summer evenings grow
I got my flower, I got my power, I got a woman who knows.
I said it’s alright. You know it’s alright – I guess it’s all in my heart
You’ll be my only, my one and only. Is that the way it should start?
Crazy ways are evident, In the way that you’re wearing your clothes.
Sippin” booze is precedent as the evening starts to glow.
I told your mamma I’d get you home but I didn’t tell her I had no car.
I saw a lion he was standing alone with a tadpole in a jar.
Dancing days are here again as the summer evening grows
You are my flower, you are my power
You are my woman who knows.
FOOL IN THE RAIN
Well there’s a light in your eye that keeps shining
Like a star that can’t wait for the night
I hate to think I’ve been blinded baby
Why can’t I see you tonight?
And the warmth of your smile starts a-burnin’
And the thrill of your touch gives me fright
And I’m shaking so much, really yearning
Why don’t you show up, make it all right?
Yeah, it’s all right.
And if you promised you’d love so completely
and you said you would always be true
You swore that you would never leave me, baby:
What ever happened to you?
And you thought it was only in movies
As you wish all your dreams would come true
It ain’t the first time believe me, baby
I’m standin here feeling blue
Yeah I’m blue
Now I will stand in the rain on the corner
I’ll watch the people go shuffling downtown
Another ten minutes no longer
And then I’m turning around
The clock on the wall’s moving slower
My heart it sinks to the ground
And the storm that I thought would blow over
Clouds the light of the love that I found
Now my body is starting to quiver
And the palms of my hands getting wet
I’ve got no reason to doubt you baby,
It’s all a terrible mess
I’ll run in the rain till I’m breathless
When I’m breathless I’ll run till I drop, hey
The thoughts of a fool’s kind of careless
I’m just a fool waiting on the wrong block, oh yeah
Light of the love that I found…
I wanna tell you bout my good thing
I ain’t disclosing no names but–
He sure is a good friend and!
I ain’t gonna tell you where he comes from, no!
If I tell you you wont come again! Hey!
I ain’t gonna tell you nothin but I do will, but I know, yeah!
I should do but I know now let me tell you bout my girl:
Open up a newspaper and what do I see? Ahh, ah
See my girl, ah, looking at me
Ooh, And when she walks, Ooh, lemme tell ya:
She walks and when she talks, she talks and
When she looks at me in the eye
She’s my baby lord I wanna make her mine
Tell me baby what you want me to do!
You want me to love you, love some other man too?
Ain’t gonna call me Mr. pitiful, no!
I don’t need no respect from nobody…
I ain’t gonna tell you nothing I ain’t gonna no more, no!
She’s my baby let me tell you that I love her so and
And! She’s the woman I really wanna love
And let me tell you more, oooh!
She’s my baby she lives next door
She’s the one a woman the one a woman that I know.
I ain’t gonna… tell you one thing that you really ought to know ooh!
She’s my lover baby and I love her so and
She’s the one that really makes me whirl and twirl!
And she’s the kind of lover that makes me me fill the whole world and
She’s the one who really makes me jump and shout, ooh!
She’s the kind of girl–I know what it’s all about!
Take it take it
Excuse me
Oh will you excuse me
I’m just trying to find the bridge… Has anybody seen the bridge?
Have you seen the bridge?
I ain’t seen the bridge!
Where’s that confounded bridge?
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now, It’s just a spring clean for the May queen. Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there’s still time to change the road you’re on; and it makes me wonder. Your head is humming and it won’t go, in case you don’t know, the piper’s calling you to join him. Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know your stairway lies on the whispering wind.
And as we wind on down the road, our shadows taller than our soul. There walks a lady we all know who shines white light and wants to show how everything still turns to gold. And if you listen very hard the tune will come to you at last. When all are one and one is all, to be a rock and not to roll.
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.
@ Spark…
“I like the option of buying one or two songs off an album. Lets face it. Not every band is Zeppelin, where 90-100% of the album is pure gold. A lot of bands are one hit wonders. I appreciate the ability to buy their gold for 99¢ instead of $18 for an album of mostly throw-away ‘songs’. I already have to many CDs of that ilk.”
Fair enough. Obviously, a reasonable choice as a consumer.
However, we can also get into the equally fair, if not completely subjective, debate about the general quality of music being created by today’s “artists”. I’m not going to open that can of worms today, however.
I haven’t any problem with the success of downloaded music, just so long as the option (in this case, a physical audio CD) for uncompressed music also exists for purchase. I’m not a huge fan of the a la carte buying format, however. There’s no emphasis on artistry there… It’s largely a business driven sales model. Oh, well… what’s new… Art is seemingly always compromised by business.
To each their own, I guess. Thanks for offering your perspective.
@ GW3:
I store my music collection on a file server volume, in what I refer to as a “shared” iTunes Music folder. I’ve come up with a somewhat kludgy but workable method of accessing the “shared” folder from multiple Macs and PCs, so that my entire music library of close to 8,000 songs is accessible from any of six computers throughout my home.
It involves setting several preferences under the Advanced tab in iTunes Preferences: pointing the “iTunes Music Folder location” to the shared iTunes Music folder on the server, and turning on the checkboxes for “Keep iTunes Music folder organized” and “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library.”
The problem is that when I add new songs to the library, only the machine I’m adding from gets its library database updated. None of the other machines know about the new songs until you manually rebuild the library on those machines.
Are you aware of any way to make updating the iTunes Library database work more seamlessly across multiple machines? It’d be nice if the database could be stored in the shared directory on the server, but as far as I can tell, each machine wants to store its own copies of its database files locally. There’s nothing in Preferences that might allow you to point to a remote database location.
Hopefully Apple will address this in the future…
MW home — damn, that’s amazing.
I have a lot of CDs with dismal sound quality. Some of them (mostly re-releases on CD from the 80s and 90s) sound like they didn’t even bother to get the masters from the basement.
What’s the benefit of a lossless reproduction from a thirty year-old CrO2 tape?
Technology has made great leaps since the introduction of CDs. Remastering today is far more powerful than it was in the early 90s. Chances are, your ripped CD sounds like crap compared with an iTMS offering.
“I think the days of audio-format CDs are numbered. High-quality digital audio has made it obsolete.”
Where do I buy these 192KHz downloads that have obsoleted CDs?
…..Led Zzzzzzzzzeppelin…..zzzzzzzzzz
Deep Purple Rule!
Looks like http://www.searchtunes.com already included zeppelin into their list.
They even have the beatles in there.
Not so fast there buddy.
You audio freaks crack me up. . . we can’t hear the difference on our average stuff, you probably have a whole studio in your house to listen to music.
Anyway, its now time for AC/DC to join the ranks on iTunes. I would buy a few tracks to give back for p2p’in most of their work.
btw I am CD free, all I used to own I traded to the used local book and music store and ripped and re traded till I had none.
44.1 KHz sampling rate means 44,100 samples per second, each sample being 16 bits. This means roughly 700 Kbps sampling. (Kbps = Kilo bits per second)
Be careful about comparing KHz, when used in digitial audio technology, with Kbps.
“To find the Queen of all my Dreams:
“In the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair.
Forget, the Beatles, forget Deep Purple, Sabbath, etc. The true lords of Rock & Roll is/are/will (always) be Led Zeppelin!!!!!!
Forget Clapton or that wuse Hendrix (overated) , or Duane Allman (overated): none of them can hold a candle to the almighty god of the eclectic guitar that is Jimmy Page!!!!!!!
PAST/PRESENT/FUTURE! End of story, end of line, end of file.
PAGE is GOD!
Note that would be Electric Guitar!
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Led Zeppelin are a bunch of coked-up, long-hair, pseudo-cross-dressing freaks who never met a binge they didn’t partake. Their musical sound is as dated as Peter, Paul & Mary.
Led Zeppelin sucks.
Page is a spaz. Sloppy as all get out. Admittedly he did some brilliant stuff with Zep. Zep are awesome, but Deep Purple cr@p on Zep.
BLACKMORE is GOD!
@ Real World
“I think the days of audio-format CDs are numbered. High-quality digital audio has made it obsolete.”
“Where do I buy these 192KHz downloads that have obsoleted CDs?”
Yeah, I could’ve worded that better. 🙁
What I meant was, there’s better-quality digital audio than what we are accustomed to hearing on audio-format CDs. The problem is, it’s not commonly available.
GW3 was probably right — factors like file size, availability, convenience, etc. means that most people will likely never hear just how good digital audio can sound.
To put it into perspective: the difference between normal CD audio (44.1KHz, 16-bit) and high-quality digital audio (>96KHz, 24-bit) is like the difference between conventional TV and HD TV. There’s more information and that information is more accurate in its reproduction of the original program source.
Dude
“Eclectic” is actually a VERY good description.
And although I am a huge fan of the man
I am still a massive fan of Duane’s, for a totally different style of playing.
@ TowerTone
Duane’s slide tone and style were nothing short of electrifying.
If you ever get a chance to pick up a copy of “Duane Allman: Anthology”, grab it. Beat them over the head to get it if you must.
“Livin’ On The Open Road” by Delaney and Bonnie has some of Duane’s best slide work. Also “Loan Me A Dime” by Boz Scaggs. Both on the Anthology set.
macPinche-
“Duane’s slide tone and style were nothing short of electrifying.”
While Jimmy Page’s playing with the violin bow on “Dazed and Confused” on The Song Remains the Same sounds northing short of phenomenally draw dropping.
You assume I’m not familiar with the inner workings of these deals, and there you are in error. As a studio musician, you are hired and YOU get paid regardless, but in most major label deals, the band is trying repay the advance against sales they were given to record the album in the first place (from which your salary comes, bucko)! Surely if you are being honest about your profession you are aware of this. And it isn’t necessarily true-if the used copy one is buying is a promo, nobody got a damn thing for it, though somebody paid to produce and distribute it. Understand that I’m not against the secondary market, and I think this is far less important where the majors are concerned, but if you like the art, support the artist for Pete’s sake! The best thing to do is go to shows and buy merchandise-that profit usually goes straight into the rightful party’s pocket.
Hello again,
I agree that as a studio player, I got paid regardless, whereas the bands were trying to recoup costs and advances given to them by the record company to make the record. That’s part of the risk of entering into a contract with a record label as opposed to being a hired musician. I was involved as either a studio player or a touring musician with several fairly successful bands and artists who did not come out well in their dealings with the record companies. It’s a difficult undertaking, there’s no question. Especially because musicians are generally not known for their business acumen. Record companies count on that, you know.
Every musician who’s been around the block knows that you never make money on record sales unless you’ve achieved the level of success of a Michael Jackson, a Madonna, a Phil Collins or someone equally large. The money made by musicians under contract to a record label is in touring and merchandising, as you rightly pointed out. The money from album sales just goes straight into the record company’s pockets. Artists generally see only pennies on each CD sold.
There’s virtually no monetary point in releasing an album these days, other than to encourage concert attendance, unless you do it on your own, without a record company’s “guidance.”
I think it’s time for the record companies to go away. I won’t go into all the reasons why record companies are evil, pandering crooks who suck wealth out of the creativity and dreams of wide-eyed, innocent young people. All you have to do is Google “why record companies suck” to learn about that.
There’s a better way to reach an audience now, through direct Internet marketing, and the record companies are a useless appendage, a dinosaur from another age. Continuing to pay their fat cat salaries by buying retail CDs at $12-18 a pop won’t encourage them to become extinct. Continuing to buy retail CDs also won’t encourage artists to abandon ship on the record companies.
As long as artists still think there’s a reason to do business with record companies, there will still be record companies to do business with. It’s like drugs: You can’t remove a heroin dealer by continuing to buy heroin from him.
It’s unfortunate that I can’t contribute to the artists’ income by purchasing a retail CD, but I choose not to keep propagating the abomination that the music industry has become. In the larger picture, musicians will be better off when record companies have breathed their last gasp. And in the meantime, when I can find a way to support artists by buying their work or merchandise directly, I do so.
Does that make sense to you?