The New Music Industry

I just want to take a moment to share a couple of thoughts on a subject that I have been thinking about for quite some time now.  For those of you who don't know, I am a huge music fan and have a CD collection of over 600 CD's that span a variety of genres.  Also...full disclosure:  I own an Iphone and an Ipod, even though I don't use the Iphone for music but instead just use it for its phone, e-mail, web browsing and application features.  The reason I gave that disclosure is because I am now going to make a statement that you may be unlikely to hear from an Apple fan:  ITunes has partially ruined the music industry.  CD sales are drastically down, record stores are going out of business and it's all because digital sales have become the dominant way in which people buy music.  This is not necessarily a bad thing if one is listening to a single from an artist that may not release an album worthy of being bought. The problem is, as any serious music fan knows, that there are many albums out there that should be listened to in their entirety.  Downloading a song from an album is not the same as going and buying the album, holding it in your hands and listening to it the whole way through. This is why I am glad that The Beatles music is not currently on ITunes (although I do wonder how much longer that will be the case).  Downloading one song from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Abbey Road will never give someone the same and complete listening experience that hearing the album straight through will do.  Albums are sometimes considered art forms, and that is what ITunes has ruined.  Too often now songs will be looked at as individual entities (which is fine) but they will not be looked at as being part of a larger album that in and of itself is a work of art.  OK--enough for now....