This is incredibly stupid and overbearing. I’m on my third dedicated mp3 player (let’s leave aside my mobile phone, my laptop, my DS, my 360) so they want me to pay for all the music three times over? No thanks. I don’t put it all on my players anyway so why should I pay a levy on it? No reason at all.

The current discussions around intellectual property, rights, paying and downloading are all fascinating to me but it never ceases to amaze me when some arse-backwards idea like this comes out of the woodwork.

In discussions with friends I’ve often said that if Oink had existed as a pay service I’d have paid. Well apparently there is something a bit like it; emusic. I hadn’t come across it before but a Facebook status from Alex sent me off to buy a new Laura Cantrell EP and I got to reading and it seems like a reasonable deal. I’m not sure I like the “number of tracks per month” model but that’s cos I listen to whole albums and not selected tracks. I’d also prefer a wider range of bitrate options (there’s one) but on the whole I like the idea and I’ve stumped up for a basic account so I’ll see what I can get for my money.