calabashmusic.com is interesting ... songs are downloaded as mp3s, at $0.99 each, with 10- and 20- song discounts. Songs are not DRM'd at all. The interface is a bit clunky, tho ... not especially convenient.

It would be great if there were a publicly available database that kept track of which music services offer a given album, and in what format. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out a way that anyone other than consumers would benefit by maintaining such a thing.

Also, there are ways to purchase from iTunes without the DRM ever being put there in the first place. (Thanks DVD Jon!)

Also, there are ways to remove the DRM from iTunes files without having to burn and re-rip them...

Yes, once you burn the CD, you can then rip the tracks to MP3s and do whatever.  

One should mention (in the spirit of playful enquiry) that one could even capture the soundcard output to file as one listens to tracks on Rhapsody, if one so desired.

With Rhapsody: once you burn the CD, can you then rip the track as an mp3...and can it then be re-burned, or uploaded via Soulseek or whatever? Because I know with iTunes, while purchased tracks can be burned only on the 'puter they're authorized for, once on CD those tracks can be ripped and treated just like any other mp3.

Rhapsody has something of the right idea in place. You can listen to entire songs, they have many more out-of-the-way records than iTunes, and their band and record cross-referencing is really quite good--I discovered bands I liked that I had never heard of, which is the greatest thing and why I started reading TWAS in the first place.  

The flaws: you cannot (legally) make an electronic copy of what you're listening to. You either listen to it radio-style, or you burn it through their interface, which is 79c a track. This leads to a further problem, since something with lots of short "transitional" tracks (e.g., the Requiem for a dream soundtrack) is disproportionately expensive; there is no burn-the-whole-record discount.  

But, most unforgiveably for bloody 2005: it only works on Windows! There is *no* Mac (leave alone unix) version whatsoever. What a disgrace.  

(That said, windows users should give it a try. I do think many would find it far better than iTunes).

All I can say is that you have spoken so much more eloquently than I could have, and said all the things I feel about the recording industry.  

And here in NZ, a 'rare' CD (ie anything that doesn't get played on the sinfully awful pop-drivel radio stations that abound in this country) will cost you about $35, and come out a minimum three weeks after its release date in the US or the UK. Yes, I could buy it from amazon, but I feel even less like putting money in the pockets of a postal service that has nothing to do with me than in the pockets of the music industry.  

I don't steal music, (which isn't to say I haven't ever, but I haven't in a seriously long time, and I have bought all I have acquired, in the end), but it becomes more tempting everytime I shell out $15 for amazon to send me a CD single (which takes minimum one week to arrive).  

Thank-you, Glenn. I especially like the bit about ramming a broken Billy Joel record up the indistry's collective ass.