Gennaro Castaldo Watch: An astonishing new world awaits

Who is this turning up at the Music Tank event, Never Mind the Box Set: The Album Post-iTunes? Why, HMV's future-facing one-man knowopolis Gennaro Castaldo:

An audience member Gennaro Castaldo, head of press and PR at U.K. entertainment retailer HMV, disclosed that HMV customers will "soon be able to buy the physical [release] and find a digital file also waiting for them when they get home." He agreed HMV would need the labels' support for such a strategy.

Yes, Gennaro - presuming they've given all their details over to HMV. Or they could just go home and slip the disc into their computer and, why, they'd find a digital file waiting for them already. Given that ripping a CD is one of the easiest things you can do with a computer, is anyone really going to be bothered to hand over email details to HMV to save the no-effort?