Each day, it seems, the industry reveals components of its business model they seem no longer to understand. This one surprises me.

Here's a lesson for all industries, as demonstrated by the majors and the broadcasters: when the guys from the sales department take control, you're in big trouble, and it may be too late to fix.

okiedoke

owenmeany

'You want Beck, The Noisettes, Soundgarden? Come to Universal.com, the only place you can find it.'

'Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Judas Priest? Sony.com. Nowhere else.'

You get the idea...if they managed to get the technological end straightened out--yeah, I know: a big 'if'--they could do it, as well as offer digitized versions of their out-of-print albums. If price and compatibility are not an issue, the consumer does not care where they get their music from.

Of course, if they were smart enough to pull this off, they would've done it already.

KikoJones

Speaking as someone who married a Pennsylvanian and, while visiting her hometown, has had to purchase booze from a "state store" (the only game in town), allow me to laugh right out loud at the vision of buying CDs at a store with bad fluorescent lighting and bulletproof glass.

Chris Molanphy

Captain Wrong