Today I did it. And it does not hurt. I bought my first .mp3 file online. I did not use Apples iTunes Store, because afaik you need a credit card to create an account there. My first buy happend on Amazon. I did not know that Amazon also offers downloads of music, so I landed there via a Google search. As I already have an account there, and the price for the song was very reasonable - 77 € cents - I decided to try it out. During the checkout-process a downloader software is downloaded, which then downloads the file. The song also is automatically added to my iTunes library. So, a very smooth process in general.

Dear music industry...

It's not the peoples fault that it took / takes so long until people are paying again for music. It's the fault of the industry, as they failed / fail to offer adequate and fairly-priced alternatives to pirate-bay et al.

I want a flat-rate for maybe 10-15 € per month. I want a good working suggestion system. I want good ways to pre-listen to music. I want an online back-up and streaming service of my music, to access it from everywhere. I want to create playlists of my songs and provide them for streaming to friends.

Soon the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz will take place again. This years programme looks very promising! Also there new building was just finished recently, which means much more space for exhibitions, ect.

I have written a blog post on SIDM, with some more details.

PS: I'll be in Linz from 4th-8th of September.