Round Is Better

How many of you joyless, digital generation downloaders actually own a CD? Or even an LP? Because let's face it, you probably place more importance in the prestige of your shiny (gremlin-prone) iPod than in the music that's on it, right? Click click click, download a few megabytes of sound and play it back as an inferior MP3. Oh, sure, you can hear a lot more music at once (without having to undertake the crippling, ardous task of actually changing a disc) but what you have, my friend, is quantity over quality. And no one else can see what you're listening to. Those tricks you bring home (or even, miracle of miracles, a date) can't fick through your collection to see what they're getting themselves into. Are you in a Lupe Fiasco, or a 50 Center? A Kylie bitch, or Angie Stoned? Do you grind to Usher, or D'Angelo?

Downloading music might have its advantages, but it's still tedious and unreliable. I hate it. It's the same as chatting to people online when you have no intention of meeting them - it's insincere. There's nothing like having a nice, shiny CD with a real cover and a real booklet, with real design. If I really love an album, I'll even hunt down the vinyl LP. And so, even though I don't own a record player, I have 12" LPs of D'Angelo's Voodoo, Maxwell's Embrya and Real Things by, ahem, 2 Unlimited. They look good - does the Windows icon representing Umbrella do anything for you?

It seems like I'm not the only one who feels this way either. Despite this, sales of CDs plummeted 10% last year (which is quite a lot, you know), and HMV has indicated that it aims to concentrate on the gaming market in the future.

I can actually remember buying my first CD (Annie Lennox's Medusa in 1995 - I was a late bloomer). Will the present generation of square-eyed geeks look back fondly on their first iTune? I don't think so somehow...