Did you know?

I am experiencing great sales of Songs of the Darling and am pleased to say that sales are mostly for the physical CD. Many people don't realise how little an artist will receive for digital downloads. I know when I have purchased downloads I have felt very pleased with myself for supporting the Artist but it turns out from first hand experience, I can now say that the only entity I am really supporting is the distributor and iTunes is one of the worst offenders. They have everything their way. iTunes has set my CD download at $16.99 for the entire album. Of that I might end up with $6.50 - all for something that is costing iTunes very little - oh yes, and by the way, I had to pay to have the album distributed online.  Google on the other hand is only charging $12.99 (no idea why but hey!) The physical album is available online for $15 + P & H. For that, I can rip a copy to my computer and share across all my devices - Apple, Android, Mac, PC - and I get to see all the great album artwork. It is a reflection of the times but in future, where possible I will buy a music from the Artists website at least knowing they will get most of the benefit.
It is a reflection of the times. I was in the Roads and Maritime Service  the other day to get a replacement boat rego sticker, and they had one staff member on. I overheard them saying it was because most people go online. Fair enough - online is convenient - but it has put someone out of work. The original sticker arrived in the post 2 weeks after the rego had expired. If I had gone personally to the RMS in the first place I would have received the sticker immediately then gone and put it on the boat. Instead, I went online, lost the sticker when it arrived very overdue then had to go and get a replacement sticker at the storefront, that cost $20! The worst thing though, is that I helped to put someone out of work!
I'm a bit of a tech head and I love technology, nevertheless, I will be thinking twice before I use the automatic checkout or make digitial purchases.

photo: By Marlith (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons