Online Music Store WTF

I was on the internet the other day looking up information on David Gray and on his website I saw his album can be pre-ordered on iTunes. So I log in to iTunes to check it out and can't find it anywhere. In a moment of confusion I go back to the website and notice that it is only available on the UK iTunes music store. Sure enough I go back to iTunes and switch to the UK store to find it on the main page. Now here is the reason this topic deserves an LJ entry, if you aren't from the UK you can't buy things from iTunes UK store. Now maybe it is just me, but this really seems ridiculous, music is music is music, why should it matter where a person lives. After a little research I learned the different countries music stores might carry different artists as well as music and albums. Have we really progressed so far with technology to limit ourselves by international borders.

It is time for the record companies to step up and let us have our music. A few years ago the record companies were whining and complaining about the Napsters and Kazaas of the world. They have since sued a bunch of teens and slowed the piracy down to a trickle. In the meantime online music stores have popped up and done a killing, especially iTunes. For those of you that are unfamiliar with these online stores they are very convenient and at 99 cents a song I don't mind purchasing a couple songs every now and then. Of course there are some drawbacks, first and foremost is the lack of artists from certain stores because a record company isn't affiliated with the music store. For instance only until recently could you find Dave Matthews Band on iTunes. Other artists missing from the world's largest music store are AC/DC and the Beatles among others. Now I find out the artist restriction is based upon the record label and country of the artist. Why wouldn't they want there music available to everybody? It just seems counterintuitive to sell something and not want it available in every market across the globe. Its time to bring down these musical borders.

In other news my weekend was pretty good although I am still tired from working last week. The weather hasn't exactly helped. Enough of the sticky humid weather already, lets get back to the nice dry weather from early last week. Saw two movies this weekend: Broken Flowers and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Bother were very good, obviously two very different movies, but each great in its own way.

Keeg