I understand that, and i wouldn't even deny that it's had that impact on me. My deal is a bit simplistic and personal though. I know so many people buy the songs that immediately grab them and fill their archives with a bunch of songs that work for them. That's great, but there's no depth or feeling with that. There's no
challenge to that.
More importantly (to me) is that many
artists put out albums as a collective piece of work. I like to think that Radiohead is among those who do. iTunes takes that away from the artist. When i switched from vinyl to CDs (i always hated cassettes), it took me awhile to get over even the smaller artwork! There is a certain romance to me in sitting around with a pair of headphones on, just listening to a piece of music, taking in the artwork, the liner notes, the whole experience and just focussing on that one thing; that singular event.
I love album artwork, i love liner notes, i love to see who wrote the songs, who played what, who they thanked, all that crap. And iTunes takes that away. I won't argue that it's a great way to be introduced to new music, as is peer-to-peer, etc. But i believe this isn't what it's being used for to a large extent and that is my beef.
I guess i'm just getting old. I should sound like it.