Yesterday was mostly sunny and I even managed to make some images. One of them is this. A tree, already scantily clad in golden leaves, sings a late song of joy, bringing us brightly red berries, a gift that looks decidedly poisonous, but beautiful nevertheless.
“Song Of Joy” is the opening track of Nick Cave’s 1996 album “Murder Ballads”. Amazon.com lists it as import audio CD, no digital downloads are available. That’s another example of an excellent album, that can’t be legally bought as downloads, at least not in the US. Here in Austria I could buy it via Amazon.de, the whole album for 5.82€, at least I would, if I hadn’t already ripped my own CD. A Google search for “itunes murder ballads” reveals a link into the Australian iTunes store, where it seems to be available as well. Of course Apple won’t let me check for sure, without having to install their iTunes software, an invitation that I politely but firmly decline.
No, those rights mongers have not yet arrived in the age of the global Internet. Artificial market fragmentation would seem to be a means to sell cheaper in emerging markets, but here we have a completely different situation. The US versus Europe/Australia? Available in one and not the other? WTF???
But then, Nick Cave is Australian and he is extremely popular in Europe. Could that be the reason? That would have made sense in the age of vinyl and plastic, when there were the costs of holding a good in stock. But now? A file??? C’mon!
At least Google can afford to hold the song available on YouTube 🙂