not atypical

Thomas Vander Stichelen talks about how he's downloaded an album, but plans on buying it anyway, and claims he's probably atypical in doing that.

Well, I'm not sure. I've downloaded a fair number of Star Trek: Voyager episodes over the last year or so, and I've become a fan – even though I almost never saw it while it was still on Kanaal 2, one of our Belgian TV stations. I like them so much that I've decided I want them all, so I've added them to my wishlist, and have bought the first season already. I will buy the others as soon as my budget permits it (they're quite expensive, but still worth it). I don't think we're so lonely as Thomas suggests. In fact, I know quite a number of people who buy the CD after they like a few of the downloaded MP3 files they have on their hard disk.

Maybe the recording industry should stop thinking of MP3 files as infringing, and start using them as the marketing instrument they really can be, for instance, by allowing people to share low-quality MP3 files but requesting they buy the CD if they want better quality or want to use it for professional purposes, or so.

...

Oh my. I just suggested a shareware-type of distribution for music. This can't be right. I must be sick.

In fact, I am. Philip, my business partner, stayed home sick today, and my nose and head aren't feeling well. I also appear to be having a fever. I would've been to bed, if not for this customer who's doing a server migration at this exact moment and requires me to do some DNS changes from time to time. Sigh...