Thursday, May 03, 2007

Last Plane to Jakarta: Sony: Stop It

Twice in two days I've gone to the iTunes store to buy an album, and twice in two days I've been met by albums that seem to think an album-length collection of digital files is worth more than $9.99. Both of these albums were on the Sony label. Sony, you do realize that those of us who buy from iTunes instead of just grabbing what we like from BitTorrent or Soulseek are in the minority, right? We're your loyal customers. We buy stuff from you even though we don't have to; we give you our money even though we could take what you're selling for nothing, and nobody would ever catch us, and many of our friends would view our actions as noble, or at least as not-unethical. (It remains unethical to take the fruits of someone's labor without paying for them, however, whether the laborer suffers direct harm or not.) Are you guys trying to push me, and dudes like me, over to the other side? For future reference, and tell your friends: Albums on iTunes cost $9.99. If you're not comfortable with that, don't sell them there.

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