I think downloading music sucks. I don't understand why people want to get music this way. Forrester Research is predicting that Compact Discs will disappear in five years, and that virtually all music will be purchased from online stores. Maybe I am a Luddite, but I would hate this arrangement.

As we know, downloaded music offers no improvement in sound over CDs. You get no liner notes, no lyrics, no production details, no artwork. Instead, you are responsible for archiving the music. You will keep needing larger hard drives. I have had a hard drive failure. I wouldn't want to have to repurchase all of that music. I have 1200+ CDs.

SACD and DVD audio offer better sound quality than CDs. Surely, music lovers should prefer better sound quality over ease of downloading. It irritates me when I hear people complain that they shouldn't have to buy a whole CD for just one song. If you only like one song from an artist, you shouldn't be a fan. You've been duped.

Downloading isn't more economical. Some online stores are selling songs for 99 cents each. The last Radiohead CD has 14 tracks. 14 times 99 cents is just about what I paid for it, and I have the disc, and the artwork, and I don't have to worry that I will erase the songs, or that my hard drive will crash. And, yes, I like all of the music on the CD, not just one song. I predict that the 99-cent model will soon disappear. We will be paying a lot more than 99 cents in the future.

What I'd like to know is if on online store would sell Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon for 99 cents. It is, after all, a 61-minute song.

I have downloaded lots of legal music, so that I can hear new musicians. That, to me, is the value of downloads. If I want the music, I will buy it.

I'll take a CD any day. Forrester says that within five years, CDs will be things that only old people have. I guess I am old.

Tags: downloading, CDs