Clive Thompson considers the state of digital music downloads in this article at Slate, taking out Real’s Rhapsody streaming service for a spin, while harping on the limitations of the current crop of all DRM-enabled music services. He makes a very good point: The current limitations of music download systems orient around the lifestyle of the “demographically average computer user,” but end up hurting the power users who would use the download services the most. When music is no longer bought, but licensed, paying a dollar a song is a shaky investment. I have CDs I bought 10 years ago and MP3s I procured almost five years ago. What are the chances I’ll still have the proper iTunes license in even two or three years?
Read [Slate]
