All I wanted to do was download Powerslave

Earlier this evening, for reasons I can't even begin to explain, the following thought popped into my head.

I'd really like to hear Powerslave right about now.

Powerslave, of course, being one of Iron Maiden's finest albums. Unfortunately, my album vanished a long time ago. However, being 2006, I didn't expect this to be a problem. I got a Blogads payment yesterday, so I have a little mad money available. So off to Itunes I went.

Itunes sucked, again. They don't have the complete album. It's a partial album, missing Two Minutes to Midnight and Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Really Mr. Jobs, why even bother with the record if you are going to skip the two best songs? I thought through my other options.

Walmart? - Nope, all downloads are Windows Media. Emusic? - Nope, will never have Powerslave. Yahoo Music? - Nope, subscription only. AllofMP3? - Hmmm...

I've previously played with AllofMP3, and have even downloaded a few sample songs. It's impressive, and it's also probably run by the Russian mafia. This is an issue when they want your credit card number. So I got creative. I used one of those one-time only account numbers available from Visa, authorized it for no more than $10, and loaded the money into my AlltheMP3 account. $10 being one penny more than I planned to spend at Itunes tonight. Then I downloaded Powerslave encoded at 192 Mbps, total cost was $1.12.

You read that right.

While I was there I also bought Living After Midnight- The Best of Judas Priest, The Replacements- Tim, and One More From The Road - Lynryd Skynrd. $10 was the minimum charge up, so I had to use it all, right?

I still have some of my $10 left too. Russian authorities have investigated AlltheMP3 and have found them to be in compliance with Russian copyright laws. The RIAA would not agree, however their credibility is so shot that I don't trust anything that they say anyway. Honestly, I'm not sure how the law really plays out on this.

I went to Itunes, credit card in hand, intent on spending $9.99 (at least). Instead, I spent about $10 with somebody in Russia, and it's all because the frackin idiots in charge of music distribution in this country have their heads so far up their asses that it looks like 1975 to them.

For the record, I actually owned all but the Judas Priest record at some point in my youth. And the Priest record is a greatest hits compilation, I owned 80% of the songs on it in the past. So from a selfish rationalization POV, I paid the RIAA for this music in the past, I'm just replacing it.

Yeah, I know it's BS. However, my point is that I was intent on buying and enjoying Powerslave tonight, and since the RIAA makes it so frackin difficult, I had to go to Russia to make it happen.