[cferneyh]

I buy new releases from a record store. I like to get the CD, booklet, etc. Then, I can covert the CD to whatever format I want, listen to it in my car, on my iPod, or on my laptop.

Jerremy

exactly, and here you can do none of those things (except for the ipod) also with an album you can go to ANY record store and buy it... imagine going into the only record store that carries the album and them selling you the album and then telling you that you can only listen to it on the specific c.d. player that they are giving you... and to listen to any other new music on your nice free new cd player you are going to have to come back and buy more music from them...

and please don't accuse me of not supporting the band because that's not the least bit accurate... i buy every album, i bought the puretracks tunes and i'm going to be buying the livedownloads shows... and if jonny fay was selling tapes with this track on it on the side of the road i'd pay way more than a buck... by buying this track you're supporting this system of selling music far more than you're supporting the band.

Right now its a pissing contest between Apple and MSFT to be the dominant player in the market, a la Beta and VHS back in the day. Right now consumers are being screwed, but the dust will settle......eventually, and all formats will be accepted on all players.

Apple is using the success of the iPod to justify not opening up AAC to other devices (that is the point, afterall - to sell more iPods) and of course MSFT needs to have 99.9% market share in every market they enter.

I'm not a Mac guy, but I hope Apple wins out because iPods are BY FAR the best digital music players out there, and iTunes is BY FAR the best sofwtare out there.