RiffDraft

I’ve always thought that if an alien came down to earth and asked about me about what American music was, I would have them watch the Martin Scorsese directed movie, The Last Waltz, covering The Band’s last concert ever, on Thanksgiving Day 1976.

The Band’s drummer/singer, Levon Helm (think “The Night They Drove Ole’ Dixie Down”), has a new solo album out. After hearing a few cuts off it on my local public radio station, I decided I needed a copy and bought it.

How I bought the album is illustrative of how the practice of buying music is changing. My first stop was eMusic. I’ve been a member for 2 years now, and I really like it. Buying from eMusic ($10/mo. for 40 downloads/mo.) would make the price of the 13-song album $3.25. But the album wasn’t available on eMusic.

I took a look at amazon.com and saw it listed for $13.99. I really prefer having the actual CD, with liner notes and artwork, but I couldn’t justify that price. I thought of going to one of the record stores in town or Wal-mart or K-mart. Too much trouble.

I checked iTunes Music store. $9.99, of course. I had my finger on the “buy album” button, but I hesitated. I don’t like how iTunes-bought music is copy-protected in such a way that it limits how you share it with friends. I never feel like I fully “own” the music.

I went back to amazon.com and found that they have an mp3 download service. The price? $8.99 and DRM-free. Bought it.

As much of an Apple fan as I am, I am pretty impressed with what amazon.com is offering and wonder what this will mean for the iTunes music store and digital media downloading. There seems to be more quality competition now and that’s a good thing.