matt: Rarely any info whatsoever about who these musicians are/were. Never any hint as to whether the musicians in question are dead or alive. Never any info about their current gigging status. Never any hint as to the world beyond in-the-home consumption of alienated product.

I agree that cost-free downloading does seem to bring out an odd sort of Must Collect Everything Now mentality in some people - a cross between butterfly-collecting and trolley-dash consumerism. But I don't think it's universal. For one thing, I don't think that's at all a fair description of the music blog I keep plugging, Jeremy Browning's Good job I kept my turntable.

I think it's hilarious that serial downloaders seem to think filehsaring is a radical revolutionary democratization of music when it's actually the ne plus ultra of capitalistic consumption

Not really. It's true that being a capitalist consumer is about buying commodities rather than about the quality of the actual things you acquire, but the buying part is fundamental, You could argue that the commodity is "consumed" at the moment you pay money for it - the shine goes off it once you've actually started using it (cf. 'box-fresh' trainers). Free downloading isn't the ne plus ultra of consumerism but a way of short-circuiting it. Even when they're acting like consumers ("Great! More! Now!"), downloaders aren't actually consuming music-as-product. More to the point, downloading is quite consistent with a more quality-oriented, more respectful attitude to the music itself. According to iTunes, I've played every track on _Ballads and songs_ (bought on CD from Mr Bulmer) between 6 and 12 times, and every track on _Nic Jones_ (downloaded) between 14 and 25 times. (And no, I haven't yet bunged Mollie Music a lost-royalties payment, but I will do - in respect of both albums.)

Spleen - stop being so reasonable, you'll spoil all the fun.