I didn't make an 'anti' Amazon posting, nor a pro one.

Apologies to you too, countess. Assume the word 'anti' should be deleted from my posting. I wrongly inferred from your remarks such as:

Very handy for those who don't believe in paying artists a market price for their work.
And wowee, compared to piracy, it's legal.

and

I had no intention of advertising a site run apparently by greedy warrior women who will rip off artists as soon as look at them.

that you were in some way opposed to them. Clearly from your remark above I was wrong, and I apologise.

But you raise a valid point in your last posting above. I naturally buy CDs from artists at gigs, but if I'm buying a CD otherwise (perhaps of an artist I've never seen), I'm likely to shop around and find the cheapest outlet (we CD buyers are similar to artists in that we too have living expenses), on the grounds that the artist will make as much from any outlet other than themselves, regardless as to how much I pay.

The problem comes when an artist charges £12.99 + £1.50 p&p by mail order, when I can buy the same CD for £6.99 inc p&p online (yes, this is a real and recent example). I've got to really like the artist to buy it direct from them in that case.