1. Maroon 5 "It Won’t Be Soon Before Long"

Sales this week: 429,484
Debut

Is Maroon 5 a lightweight sideshow that demands no attention or did I just not get the memo?

Oh, I got the MEMO!  How can you escape it!  It’s TWENTIETH CENTURY hype done to the zenith!  Saturation advertising, placed stories, all to get everybody to rush into the store and buy the album the day it comes out, or "drops" in hip-hop parlance.

Well, in a country of three hundred million, this number isn’t pitiful, but it’s close.  Could it be that most people just don’t give a shit about Maroon 5?  Could just as well do without them?  The way they’ve done without Whitney Houston all these years?

I mean what did Whitney do to change the landscape, to make us remember?  There’s not a string of unforgettable, groundbreaking singles, like with Aretha Franklin, just a few paint by number pop concoctions sold with pretty images on MTV, back when people used to watch MTV, when it used to be about music.

How fucked up is it that VH1 is more watchable than MTV?  MTV’s bringing back "Unplugged", with Bon Jovi?  Isn’t that like signing your own death warrant, showing everybody that you truly do live in the past?  They can’t break any new stars, so they’re just gonna bring back the old ones.  Let me guess…  Bon Jovi’s gonna play "Livin’ On A Prayer" and "Wanted Dead Or Alive", as well as the country track he’s working that week.  Make me puke.  Whereas at least VH1’s living in the twenty first century, it’s just "Mad" magazine train-wreck reality shows, gutter comedy.

One thing’s for sure, Maroon 5 won’t have the lasting power of Bon Jovi.  First of all, they’re not as good.  Secondly, IT’S NOT 1986, MOST PEOPLE JUST AREN’T PAYING ATTENTION!

Funny thing is I’ve heard Maroon 5’s new single once, on some satellite station.  I’d like to tell you it’s great, but it’s a confection.  But, my point is I know the band is led by Adam Levine, he grew up in Brentwood, didn’t he?  He had a previous band that didn’t break through?  I mean how fucked up is THIS!  I know the band’s story better than their music!  And I don’t even care, it’s just that I’ve been BOMBARDED with this information.  And it hasn’t made me curious.  Based on this sales number, it didn’t make a whole hell of a lot of other people curious either.

But, we’ve got an interesting question…  Will NOTHING be mainstream and dominant in the future, or will something SO good be owned by seemingly everybody, both because of its quality and the need to be a member of the group, a member of the culture.

Actually, these singles have much more penetration than sales figures would indicate.  Hits are traded P2P by MILLIONS of people.  So maybe most of what I said above is beside the point, maybe a lot more people care, but the business just refuses to count them.  Hey, it’s like immigration, we’ve got to have a plan.  Are we gonna leave all the traders out forever, or bring them into the big tent?

I still think Maroon 5 is evanescent crap, I still think they’ve got surprisingly little impact relative to the hype, but they’re actually bigger than this number indicates.

Then again, Maroon 5’s "Make Me Wonder" is only number 18 on the BigChampagne chart (the bible of P2P), and it’s going down.  But, it resided on 1,426,834 hard drives today.  Let’s look at the digital singles chart…  They’re showing 156,691 downloads of "Makes Me Wonder" this week, with a cume of 872,088.  The single’s been out for 5 weeks.  Why is that?  If you want to sell albums, why do you only make the single available for over a month?  Bottom line, the people who stole it aren’t going to buy it, and more people stole it than bought it.

But, BigChampagne doesn’t include the heritage/catalog tracks/albums.  How many people downloaded "Stairway To Heaven"?

Confused yet?

You should be, it’s murky out there.  But what we’ve learned is more people want the music than are buying it.  Should we try to convert them, or sue them?  Is music failing, or is the SELLING of music failing?  And what if Maroon 5 were the Beatles, would the penetration be stratospheric on hard drives, or can no one get that traction today?

These are the questions that should be asked.  But they’re not even part of the dialogue.

2. Linkin Park "Minutes To Midnight"

Sales this week: 197,640
Cume: 821,642

Was the problem that people burned out on the music on "Beatles For Sale"?  Is that why the Beatles changed direction, gave up the poppy sound for something deeper with "Rubber Soul"?

And was the "Revolver" sound rejected, is that why they went in a different direction with "Sgt. Pepper"?

Of course not.  Everybody was happy with what the Beatles were ALREADY DOING!  But the band changed direction, tested our limits because THEY didn’t want to repeat themselves, they wanted to challenge THEMSELVES, they wanted to RISK!

Where’s the risk in this Linkin Park album?  The band was afraid if they put out rap-rock, no one would care.  So, they eliminated a signature sound of the band, worked with the same producer as everybody else, and came up with a safe album with bad buzz.

It’s about making a statement.  This was about playing it safe.

And no amount of record company bullshit can convince me otherwise.

You sell millions of records and you get uptight.  You’re afraid to fuck up the franchise.  You not only want YOUR money and perks, everybody else is DEPENDING ON YOU!

That’s what killed Kurt Cobain.  Everybody’s expectations, everybody’s interests, it was too much weight on his shoulders, he couldn’t carry it, he wanted off.  Stomach pain?  Classic anxiety symptom.

Of course, truly we can only blame Kurt.  But once you make it, it’s overwhelming.  Your responsibility is not only to yourself.  And now, more than ever, past history makes no difference.  Hell, look at the baby boomer acts, Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac’s genius?  NOBODY CARED!  And how about that Paul McCartney saturation hype.  God, the story isn’t his music, but that he’s selling it in STARBUCKS!  He can’t bear to fail.

I feel sorry for Paul.  He thinks he’s vital, and the public doesn’t care.  Top Forty radio won’t play him, and radio sucks anyway.  What’s he to do?  John Mellencamp sold out to Chevy and all it did was hurt his image.

Everything’s safe.  And crummy.  Did anybody say "Spider-Man 3" changed their life?  "Shrek 3"?  "Pirates 3"?  We’ve got a dearth of quality.  The hype machine may not jump on quality, but the people will.  Quality and authenticity, isn’t that what’s selling Amy Winehouse?

3. Ozzy Osbourne "Black Rain"

Sales this week: 151,991
Debut

Ozzy’s a joke, right?  Isn’t he that bumbling guy on TV, who blames his psychiatrist for over-medicating him?

Shit Ozzy, you’re rich.  Couldn’t you get a second opinion?

And what about Ozzfest.  Like Sharon Osbourne would give away ANYTHING for free.

Hell, they’re SELLING VIP packages.  And, no one has gotten their free tickets yet.  And you know they’ll be free just like those free iPods in the spam e-mails you get.

Ozzy did great work with Randy Rhoads.  His "No More Tears" album is a classic.  But now he’s just a money machine, which doesn’t seem to be paying off too handsomely.

I mean why buy this record?  Who can believe in this guy after the MTV show?  And without belief, you’ve got no cadre of hard core male fans who’ll follow you anywhere because you’re all they’ve got, along with their zits and beer.

18. Fergie "The Dutchess"

Sales this week: 29,105
Cume: 1,929,005

She works hard for the money.  Kissing all that radio butt.

The old days of being a rock star?  Playing your music after the sun goes down, then getting your dick sucked as you smoke a doobie?  Those days are GONE!  If you want to make it in today’s world, get a plastic surgeon, work out heavily, and be willing to do whatever your handlers say you should.  What has this got to do with music?  NOTHING!

28. Justin Timberlake "Future Sex/Love Sounds"

Sales this week: 21,173
Cume: 3,272,186

They gave him a fucking record label.  Give me a break.

They close down Elektra, and Capitol.  But Justin’s gonna go into the record business.  Why don’t they just buy him a Maybach, or in the alternative, just light the cash on fire.  Maybe charge admission, that’d be a better attraction than the acts he’s gonna sign.

Who did this well?

Certainly not Prince.

Madonna had a huge smash with Alanis, and then not much.

The only person who had real success was Fred Durst, with Staind and Puddle Of Mudd.  Is that the paradigm you want to follow, FRED DURST?  Who can’t even WORK in the record business anymore?

Justin, a hint for you buddy.  START A MANAGEMENT COMPANY!  OWN THE COPYRIGHTS!  There’s money in music, but not in forming a record company.  Especially when you’re so far from the day to day.

But this is a story in the press, this is a big thing.

I guess with Lindsay Lohan in rehab, they’ve got nothing to talk about.

31. Fall Out Boy "Infinity On High"

Sales this week: 17,632
Cume: 864,323

Wait a minute!  Wasn’t the headline "Fall Out Boy Hits ‘High’ Note With No. 1 Debut"?  Weren’t they gonna save the business?  God, that’s what the press said.

But here, 16 weeks later, they haven’t even made it to platinum.  It’s a twenty first century story.  Big chart debut, and then…

Watch out Maroon 5 and Linkin Park.  Then again, Maroon 5’s got Jimmy, he WILLS these records into hits.  He’ll have Fergie and Gwen in the next Maroon 5 video, he’ll tie in with some corporation, he’ll do whatever it takes to win at the old school game.  And that’s what it is, positively old school.  Hanging on the telephone, working the old boy network.  A lotta work just to maintain your image.  And how much fun is it?  Clive Davis says he’s birthing our national culture.  He’s truly convinced he’s saving us.  Jimmy’s hipper than that, not that delusional.  But is it really fun figuring out ways to jam this crap?  Is that why he got into this business?

Of course not, he got into it for the PUSSYCAT DOLLS!

34. "Shrek The Third"

Sales this week: 16,527
Cume: 32,157

Soundtrack albums are officially dead.

Fergie, Wings, Wolfmother, Led Zeppelin…  The kids aren’t THAT stupid!

40. The Beach Boys "Warmth Of The Sun"

Sales this week: 14,473
Debut

This is sad.  I’m a huge Brian Wilson fan.  I bought the albums containing tracks like the contained "It’s O.K." when no one did.  But they’ve got to give it a rest.  "Pet Sounds" is the most repackaged, re-released record I can think of.  We got the memo, and the music.  Hey, if you want to sell it in the future, let it lay fallow for a while, until people truly want it.  And they don’t want this.  God, having fun all summer long doesn’t even mean the same THING anymore!  Kids can’t go to the beach without their parents, they play at home in the a/c and every oldster who wants this music has it.

Can you believe there’s no more Capitol Records?  Shouldn’t they have canned the Virgin brand, sold it back to Branson (hey, he’d pay SOMETHING for it) and then have Jason fly the Capitol flag?

Sad.

67. Barbra Streisand "Live In Concert"

Sales this week: 9,467
Cume: 87,046

They’d have been better off selling this as a PBS pledge break premium.  Hell, that’s where her audience resides, in front of the TV.

Or, they should have made a deal with Starbucks.

This is laughable.  As were the prices for her tour.

Hey Barbra, either come down off your throne and be one of the people, or STAY HOME!

81. Rufus Wainwright "Release The Stars"

Sales this week: 8,420
Cume: 32,465

Now he’s just like his parents, a marginal, non-profit-making artist, just with a LOT more hype and nowhere NEAR the catalog.  Shit, "Heart Like A Wheel" is better than ANYTHING Rufus has ever written.

97. Tori Amos "American Doll Posse"

Sales this week: 7,467
Cume: 90,557

Who knew Tori Amos was going to turn into Anne Heche and leave us high and dry, become so obscure that even diehard fans stopped paying attention.

170. Regina Spektor "Begin To Hope"

Sales this week: 4,227
Cume: 402,689

Girls are gonna save music, not boys.  Boys need markers, they need achievements, it’s all about the pecking order, the size of your dick.  Whereas women don’t need to set the world on fire, they don’t need a collection of toys, it’s what’s on the INSIDE that counts.

It’s absolutely stunning in a world of Pussycat Dolls and Fergies, in an era where Gwen Stefani sells out for fame, for ongoing success, that someone does it her own way and has success.

It’s all about hearing these records.  Oh, I knew who Regina Spektor was, I even listened to Goldie recount in detail how he and Seymour signed her, and she’s Anthony Zuiker’s favorite act, but that wasn’t enough to motivate me.  But earlier this week, I heard "Samson" on the radio, and I got it immediately.

That’s how it is with music, all great art.  You don’t need anybody to TELL you something is good, you just instantly know, as soon as you experience it.

We’re all living in Missouri now, we’ve got a whole SHOW ME COUNTRY!  You can’t convince me, you’re untrustworthy.  I’ve got to hear it from someone without an investment.

Laura Nyro will be remembered for the hits she wrote for the 5th Dimension.  Hell, the fucked up world we live in has her MANAGER more famous than she ever was and will be.

David Geffen made her career.  Unfortunately, he also helped kill it.  By making a bad deal and walking away.  But when he believed, his passion drove her into the forefront.  We all need someone to believe in us, to help us.  Unfortunately, now these people are no longer midwives, but kingmakers.

Clive Davis never wrote a song or played a note.  But the way he writes the book, he’s more important than Laura Nyro.  That’s ridiculous.

You see Laura Nyro spoke from the soul.  Her music came directly from her heart to yours, unfiltered.  If you were a fan, you had to see her whenever she came to town, you bought the records without hearing them first.  You were a member of a cult.

That’s what the business used to be, a collection of cults.  But then the cults grew so big that the indie record labels sold out to the conglomerates and the resultant labels thought they could create cults with a snap of the fingers.  But that’s not how you do it.  That’s how you sell a TV program, not a musical artist.

And Laura Nyro was an artist.

And so is Regina Spektor.

Will she equal Laura Nyro’s achievements?  Who knows!  But what we do know is she’s following her own muse, Seymour and Goldie aren’t telling her what to do, they’re PROTECTING HER!

That’s what artists need, protection, not whoring out.  The attention alone at this young age will kill you.  Look at the boys, dating famous socialites, opening bars, trying to hang on desperately to their peak, playing it safer and safer while wilting under the attention.

We love Amy Winehouse because she’s a rock star, she does it HER way.

But we love Regina Spektor first and foremost because of the music, which is unfettered, straight from her soul.

Regina has quietly almost gone gold.  She means more than all that boy crap.

And speaking of girls, the Wreckers have sold 751,590 albums so far.  I’d rather listen to them and Little Big Town than any of the boys with guitars.  We’ve got points of light, we’ve just got to NURTURE THEM!

Invest in women.  Don’t care about what they look like, if they’ll obey you, the only test is are they speaking from the HEART!  This is what the public is yearning for.  It may not sell fast, but it seemingly sells strong and steady if not forever, then a VERY long time…

Is more music for more people.

I’ve felt a strange ennui for the last couple of years.  The music sphere, it’s just not that exciting.  Could it be my age? Or the acts purveyed?  Possibly.  But I just don’t care as much as I used to.  The new releases come and go, nothing seems to gain ubiquity and nothing seems to stick.  SoundScan numbers go down and concert attendance doesn’t jump either.  It seems that the business is running on fumes.  At least to me.

Then I watch something like "The MP3 Revolution: iPod" on the Discovery Science channel and I’m reminded of the way things used to be, when I combed the Net for news, when music was the paramount art form, back in 2000, at the height of Napster.

The YouTube revolution?  Doesn’t hold a candle to Napster.  Napster caught us off guard.  Unless you had a high speed connection, unless you were computer savvy, unless you were in COLLEGE, you were out of the loop!

What was wrong with CDs?  Sure, vinyl was better, but we didn’t hate the format.  And for people like me, who can get anything they want for free, what difference does it make that you can steal it?

What killed the record industry was "Newsweek".  When it put Napster on its cover in the spring of 2000.  Suddenly, everybody was aware, and everybody wanted to play.

But not me.  I was on a Mac.  Those songs…well, they weren’t exactly stolen, technically it was copyright infringement, but bread was being taken from artists’ wallets, it wasn’t FAIR!  And then I used Napster.  And although I still thought it was an infringing service, I was converted, it wasn’t the most exciting musical development since MTV, it was the most exciting musical development since HENDRIX!  At one’s fingertips was not only the history of released music, but UNRELEASED TRACKS!

One of my cherished Napster downloads is Bonnie Raitt doing Blind Faith’s "Can’t Find My Way Home", with Lowell George and John Hammond, Jr., live at a radio station.  Sure, the sound might not be perfect, but there is NO BETTER SONG than "Can’t Find My Way Home", it’s got the intimacy of great rock and roll, and to hear a take by some of my all time favorite musicians?  WHEW!

You see I went to visit my sister in Minneapolis.  She’s now a Mac Chick, but back then she was still living on the dark side, in PC Land.  And when I entered the house, she told me they had NAPSTER!

So I went down to her basement, where the computer resided, brand new, with a cable connection, probably the first on her block, and Wendy showed me she’d downloaded Art Garfunkel’s "Breakaway", a track she loved, fully available at retail, but which she’d never bothered to purchase, not wanting the whole album.  And King Harvest’s "Dancing In The Moonlight"!  I remembered buying her the album over a decade before, just so she could have this most treasured track, one totally unavailable, which only a sleuth like me could find in the cut-out bin.

But suddenly, EVERYTHING was available!

Oh, that first week in Minnesota, I downloaded live Shawn Colvin and Mary-Chapin Carpenter duets.  And from that Joni Mitchell TV show, Cyndi Lauper’s take of "Carey".  Have you HEARD THIS?  It’s still unavailable at retail, at the iTunes Store, but you can now SEE IT on YouTube!  Yup, go to:

Cyndi Lauper – Carey

endure Ashley Judd’s too long intro, and DEDICATE yourself to the performance, hang in there.  You’ll be positively BLOWN AWAY!  You’ll understand why Cyndi Lauper still has a career.  She turns the song into something completely different, this is live performance at its finest.  And isn’t it fucked up that you can SEE IT, albeit illegally, but can’t LISTEN TO IT?

The excitement of YouTube, that endless surfing to see rarities, that’s the way it used to be in music, in the heyday of Napster.  This is what the major labels and the publishers, the rights holders, killed.  To the detriment of us all.

The first thing I did when I got back to Santa Monica was to call Adelphia.  To order a cable modem.  And as soon as it was delivered, I downloaded the now available MACSTER, which allowed Apple people to play in the Napster world.  My first track?  Argent’s "Liar", which I always loved and couldn’t rationalize buying the whole album for.  And KISS’s "Lick It Up", one of the few tracks by the band I EVER liked.

I’d spend whole DAYS downloading music, in print and out of print, commercially available and not.  After midnight, certain rarities would become available because Europeans had woken up and come online.  And I discovered the best time to download was on Saturday afternoon, because everybody was home doing the same thing I was.

I’d go places, and that would be the discussion.  Did you get THIS from Napster?  How about THAT?

I don’t have this kind of discussion anymore.  We talk about "American Idol", or food, but that zeal in people’s eyes when it comes to music?  That isn’t there.  That’s what’s MISSING!

But the problem’s been solved you say, with the iTunes Store.

Well, as you can see from what I’ve written above, a great deal of the excitement never makes it to Apple’s retail environment.

And Rhapsody and the newfangled Napster?  I’ve got a subscription, but…there’s just something different about owning things.  And, you’ve got the same availability problem you do with the other legal stores.

Yup, we’ve turned music acquisition into a legally approved service, we’ve just killed all the excitement in the process.

I’m not gonna download a hundred tracks on a Saturday afternoon from the iTunes Store.  You’re right, I don’t want to spend a hundred bucks.  To find out MOST of what I’ve downloaded I DON’T LIKE!  Napster changed the equation, from paying up front to paying after the fact.

Wait a second, nobody paid for Napster.

Bertelsmann wanted a legal service, but Warner, Universal and EMI sued them for copyright infringement.  Yup, the plaintiffs won (technically, settled).  And Capitol Records doesn’t even EXIST anymore!

But what I miss most is that excitement.  Of going online to see what was on EVERYBODY’S HARD DRIVE!  You mean I wasn’t the only one who liked this?  Or THAT?

You can’t understand if you didn’t play.  You can’t understand if you still don’t play on the facsimile known as Limewire.  It’s like talking about sex having never done it.  You can’t really speak with authority until AFTER you’ve lost your virginity.

The old wave players are fighting to keep an old business model.  Wherein you pay the equivalent of a buck a track, suddenly $1.29.  No more music is consumed, if they’re lucky, and so far they haven’t been, they’ll be able to replicate their CD business.  Growth?  Most people don’t even play.

Yup, most people don’t buy music.  And many that do purchase very little.  But it was THESE people who were drawn in by Napster.  They wanted to know what was going on the same way you signed up for a MySpace account, and now FaceBook.  Napster was where it was happening.  A small fee to allow these non-players to suddenly play?  And get hooked?  Yup, music is like dope.  You taste a little, you want a lot.  You want not only the tracks, but to go to the show and buy the t-shirt.

It’s like cell phones.  You’ve got to lower the price and let EVERYBODY partake.

But that’s not the game the rights holders are in.  They’re just trying to maintain what they once had.  Spreading the word that P2P is illegal, by suing people, they’re CONTRIBUTING to the death of the business.  The casual user doesn’t stop trading and start buying, he NEVER BOUGHT!  He just gives up, and surfs YouTube.  Hell, it’s not worth the lawsuit.

You’ve heard of winning the battle but losing the war?  That’s what the music industry did.  So busy protecting its rights under an old model that the public abandoned it.  So, the concert business makes its nut by charging stratospheric prices for oldies acts.  What happens when those performers fade away forever?  Who’s going to sell out arenas then?  How much revenue are the labels going to book when the CD dies?  There’s no preparation for the future, no handing off to the new generation, no confrontation of reality, just smoke and mirrors telling everybody that you must respect the law, and keep things the way they used to be.

Talk to an act.  There isn’t one alive that hasn’t gotten an e-mail from a fan telling them that their music kept them alive, kept them from committing suicide.  THAT’S the power of music.  Shouldn’t MORE people have it?  Shouldn’t MORE lives be saved?

I was watching this TV show recounting the history of online music and I felt my adrenaline pump, I was reminded of the way things used to be.

I want that excitement back.

People should pay for music.  But should they pay the same amount for even less than the same thing?  Does the Net not give us any advantages?  With a store in EVERY house?  And distribution expenses SO LOW?

Anything that restricts the free flow of tracks actually HURTS the business.  Because in an era where radio is an untrustworthy joke, it’s the PEOPLE who spread the word.  Monetize this behavior, don’t eviscerate it.

And they wonder why we hate them.

In case you’ve been out of the Net loop, when you buy an UNRESTRICTED track at the iTunes Store, it comes with your NAME and E-MAIL address EMBEDDED!

Why is it these fucks think we won’t catch on, that we’re ignorant and won’t spread the word how fucked up they are.  Don’t they understand this is how they got in trouble in the FIRST PLACE?  The INTERNET!

Just like Lindsay Lohan can’t cover up the fact that she crashed her car high on coke, Apple and EMI can’t cover up the fact that they’re fucking with us.  This is WORSE than restricted/DRM/copy-protected music!

They’re trying to SCARE US back into the last century.  Trying to trip us up, trying to keep us playing on their terms.  EMI hasn’t given up on copy protection, they’ve just instituted a NEW ONE!  Wherein they can trace your track if you choose to do anything untoward with it.  Yup, if it’s your track that’s being traded P2P, you’re FUCKED!  You’d better not open your music folder to P2P trading, your NAME might get out!

How fucked up is THIS?  Why don’t you put a camera in my bedroom while you’re at it.  Why don’t you require a list of every girl I ever fucked before I get into the gig.  What’s next, SAT SCORES?

I thought the music was supposed to be your friend.  But now it’s just part of the endless scamster scene populated by spammers and thieves looking to gain information, to strip us of our identities or beat us into submission.  Yup, this is exactly what John Lennon had in mind when he made his music, a private FBI, that could fuck with you just like the U.S. government fucked with him, tried to get him deported.  Lennon fought for years.  There was an emotional cost.  As for the FINANCIAL COST?  He could afford it.  Can YOU?  If you’re sued by the RIAA can you even mount a DEFENSE?

In the future, the music will float freely, or be so abundant and cheap that you won’t need to trade/transfer/steal.  But YOU’RE gonna have to sacrifice your rights now, along the way.

Where do they come up with this shit?  How could they think they could get away with it?  Are they really this afraid, this desperate, willing to do ANYTHING to protect their old business model?

As for 256kbps files…  I’ve got thousand dollar speakers and I can barely hear the difference between the version of McCartney’s "Letting Go" I downloaded from iTunes and the 160kbps MP3 rip I made from the original CD.  On cheaper speakers, on earbuds?  NO DISTINGUISHABLE DIFFERENCE!

In other words, EMI just wanted to find a way to charge thirty cents more while RETAINING the copy protection.  FUCKERS!

Apple hides account info in DRM-free music, too

TUAW Tip: Don’t Torrent That Song…

This is fucked up.

The way I understood it, you had the option of paying 99 cents for the usual version, or $1.29 for the hi-res one.

Seems simple enough.  They exist side by side.  You just choose which one you want.  But NO!

So I upgrade my iTunes software, and then search for one of my favorite McCartney tracks, "Letting Go" from "Venus & Mars".  I’ve got some credit, I’ll buy it to see how good it sounds.

But when searching I could only find a handful of McCartney albums, lame ones like "Press To Play".  As a matter of fact, I only saw FIVE McCartney albums when I said to show me all that was available, 41 songs in all.

But when I went to the iTunes Store homepage, and clicked on iTunes Plus, I saw "Band On The Run".  But when I clicked on that…I got a message.  "Do You Want to Set Your iTunes Plus Preference?"

"By selecting iTunes Plus below, you will always see the iTunes Plus version of an album or music video whenever one is available.  You can change this preference by going to your iTunes Store Account page at any time."

Why would I want to do that?  I want to see BOTH versions.

But when I clicked "Cancel", I found out I couldn’t look at ANY hi-res versions!

So I clicked okay, and then I found out I could no longer see the 99 cent versions!

So I went to change the preference.  In Preferences, under the iTunes Menu in the iTunes software.  But there was no option in "Store" to go back!

I was flummoxed.  Had I lost 99 cent tracks FOREVER!

Then, furiously checking every menu in the iTunes program, under Store, I found "View My Account".  So I clicked on that.

Well, first I had to remember my password…

Then, once inside the system, at the top of my account screen, there was an option to "Manage iTunes Plus".  The fucking boilerplate gives one the impression that you will be able to see the hi-res/iTunes Plus version whenever one is available.  It DOESN’T tell you that if you click this box you will never see the standard priced one AGAIN!

At least I remembered to go to my account page.  Since you only see the iTunes Plus option once, you’ve got to REMEMBER that you clicked this option.  Otherwise, you will believe music is now $1.29.

This is fucking nuts.  This is bait and switch.  This needs to end IMMEDIATELY!

When I go to buy a car, they don’t say if I want to LOOK at the one loaded up with options I can no longer look at the base model.  Unless I remember that there are multiple levels and I go into the manager’s office and sign a waiver.  And then I can’t look at the EXPENSIVE version unless I go back into the office!

And since you can only see one or the other, how many people are gonna no longer know that a cheap version is available?

Utter fucking bullshit.

Whom do I blame?  Eric Nicoli or Steve Jobs?

Give us the option, cheap or expensive.  That’s the American way, comparison shopping.

But not in music.  The going out of business labels are CONTINUING to fuck their customers.

P.S. If you click to accept iTunes Plus, THEN you can see "Venus & Mars".  I clicked on "Letting Go", I’m still waiting for it to download…  Oops, I got an error code.  Has the track been lost forever?  Have I lost my money?  Doesn’t seem like iTunes Plus is ready for prime time.