Roy Orbison’s Black & White Night is the first full album I’ve ever purchased from iTunes. I was pretty pleased with the instant gratification combined with the cost effectiveness of downloading vs going to a store.

I know a lot of people crying now about music downloads vs purchasing cds in a store in a manner comparable to when LP collections in the 80s became obsolete. I don’t blame them, and I still think having a hard copy is worth having if its a favorite artist or if you don’t have a digital music player. But since I got the iPod, and even in the last few years, almost ALL my music has been on the computer. I load the cd into my hard drive, and then the cd goes onto a shelf or to my car CD player. of course, now the iPod goes everywhere, and the idea of buying a CD just to never play it more than once seems SILLY.

Albums usually go for only 9.99 even if that adds up to be much cheaper than the .99 per song cost of individual tracks. I don’t know any store in town that sells a CD for less, especially not with sales tax.

So I totally sympathize with the CD owners, because it might be the end of an era if enough people get broadband connections and digital music players (which is a LONG LONG way off) but I’m going to enjoy grabbing new music and trying out stuff on iTunes instead of buying CDs from now on.