More iTunes / Legal Music Downloads

Well having used iTunes for a few weeks, it has opened my mind. I have started listening to new artists, something that a month ago I would not have thought about doing! My music collection now includes songs from: Rachel Stevens, Sugababes & Madonna. I suspect that over the coming weeks my collection will grow with more new artists! Since iTunes has a feature that suggests tracks I should purchase, and has just recommended I get a track called Love Generation by Bob Sinclair feat: Gary Pine, which having heard the 30 sec clip does sound rather catchy.

I think Digital Music Downloads are the way forward, as you can have the music where you want it - on your Mobile Phone, Portable MP3 player on burnt on to a CD. In the future we will probably buy HiFi's with connections for MP3 players to be connected to them so we can hear our favourite music any way we want to!

The only thing now that has to be solved with Digital Downloads is the following:

1. Record labels must ensure that all their artists are available on at least 1 digital music store, ideally on them all, and artists should not be able to say I don't want my music available digitally
2. Artists / Record Labels should promote legal downloading
3. A full back catalogue of an artist should be available where possible, along with rare and hard to find tracks.
   
4. Exclusives should be offered to digital downloaders to encourage them to buy full albums digitally rather than on CD (if I wanted an album by an artist that was available digitally I would still buy it on CD, as I have no incentive to get the digital version, and can rip the files from the CD for use in my PC, MP3 player etc), such as bonus videos with albums, or exclusive mixes, something that iTunes does with some artists.
   
5. Once you have paid for and downloaded a track you should be able to use that track in whatever device you want, as long as you don't share the file.
   

Once those few things have been solved digital downloads will in my opinion be perfect, and the day will come, I think when you can go in to a record store, select the digital tracks you want, and have them burned on CD, thus giving you the tracks you want, and not those you don't.