No Rock And Roll Fun

REALISM IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY: We must say we're slightly surprised that the music industry, after years of moaning that free music downloads have created a culture where people have come to expect to get music for nothing, they've now declared Digital Download Day and are going to, um, give away downloads. This time, though, its all in order to promote the existence of the new, legal download service for Europe, based at HMV and a few other sites.
Even more encouraging is the realistic pricing structure the new service has for when you've used up your freebies - while a quid to burn a track to CD seems a bit steep, downloading a track for ten pence and streaming for a penny is the first official download regime we've heard which doesn't sound like a rip-off. Our CD prices may be outrageous, but in Europe, at least our digital music is fairly-priced. Let's just hope the tracks on offer are good, and the format they're offered in is one that works.