we need something new

I've been thinking a lot recently about the way in which I buy and use music. By the way, I am sitting here in my dressing gown drinking my fourth cup of coffee and listening to Rufus Wainwright's new album Want Two. I've been up since 6am, because that evil f**king cat insists on getting me up so that I can stir up the food in his bowl. He doesn't like it when it looks a bit dry. A quick stir and he is happily munching away. I can't remember the last time I woke up at my own pace.

Now, back to the topic. I have realised that since I digitalised my music collection that I no longer want to buy single songs or even single albums. When I discover an artist new to me, I want to download everything that they have ever recorded. In the end, I sometimes discard some of it, but I still want to have a listen to it first. I don't imagine that I am alone in this. The thing is I can't quite understand why digital downloads of music are not cheaper? Even the wonderful iTunes Store can charge £9.99 for a virtual album. I can sort of understand that new music can be costly to produce and that the record companies need to recoup this by charging a higher price, but what about older music from their back catalogues? Why am I charged the same for an album that is 20 years old as an album that was released last week? The cost of producing the older album has already been recouped many times over. I know that there is a cost involved in transfering the music into a digital format, but it's not as if we are being offered rare albums that have not already been transfered onto CD. I transfer music from CDs onto my computer all the time. It may be a bit naive of me to suggest that the record companies are only doing the same on a slightly larger scale. Most of the music that we can buy on the internet has not been remastered for downloading. It's the same music that we can buy on CD. So why are we paying almost the same price as that for a physical CD?

It seems to me that we are up against the greed of the five big record companies that make up the RIAA. They still dream of a golden age when they made huge profits from children willing to give them all of their available cash for a three minute pop song. Having gone through a slump, these companies seem to think that they have found a new way to make money from us. Why are we allowing them to do this?

Why should we pay these huge sums of money for old music, delivered without packaging, lyrics, artwork, or any of the other stuff that made buying a new album a bit of an event when we were younger?

Basically, I want a way of downloading older music cheaply. I want to be able to hear entire back catalogues and I would be willing to pay for this. Although I don't think I should have to pay more than, say around £2 for an album. Does this sound unreasonable?