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Monday, May 24, 2004

It's Just not the same

I see Napster has been relaunched legally and you can now download your favourite album for £9.95 and there are claims that this will hit the retail sector through the record stores with a downturn in sales of upto 30 %
This is a shame. It was part of my early teenage school years, meeting your mates in town on a Saturday morning and hanging around inside record stores, spending hours flipping through vinyl album covers, listening to favourite tracks in those telephone type booths or trying to get the thick girl with the blonde bouffant hair and chewing gum unknowingly to play a track with obscene lyrics over the shops PA speakers. Just looking at the album sleeves was a real pleasure especially if they were a bit risque - Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland with 36 nudes on the inside cover - even if you couldn't afford to buy it. It was then on to the local Wimpey bar to see how long we could make a cup of coffee last before being thrown out.
For £9.95 all you get from Napster is a download which you then copy to a CDR or MP3, what you don't get is that all important album cover, with the track titles and credits and often a pullout booklet with the lyrics printed on. I don't get this, for the same money you can order the original CD online or even buy it in you local supermarket if it's in the top 20 and being an original pressing the quality's got to be better than a download. Am I missing the point?

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