Music Company's Suck

So I have an amazing wife who got me Sirius a few years ago as a birthday present, so I get to listen to Radio 1(BBC) on the way into work every morning. It makes me smile (lots). It also highlights (at least for me) how stupid music companies are these days, and how far they've fallen behind the rest of the world in globalization and customer service.

So, for the last two weeks, I've had Calvin Harris's "I'm not alone" song going around in my head. I love it, think it's perfect for the start of the summer, and lets me pretend for a brief minute that I'm in Ibiza, rather than Denver. I obviously wanted to buy it - searched Amazon (US), not there, not on iTunes either, or any of the other places I normally buy music. It's on the UK versions of these sites, but because I didn't log in from the right country, they won't take my money......

Now, I can listen to it 24/7 if I'm at my computer - Hype Machine has 50 million different remixes, and I can even post the official video on this site. But that doesn't help me when I need that extra bit of boost at the gym - I'm not taking a laptop and aircard with me everywhere I go just to hear music - that's overkill even for me.



So what did I end up doing? I called in a favor from my brother, got him to loan me the 79 pence until I can pay him back, he bought it in the UK, and then emailed it to me. How convoluted is that? I'm sure there's some random law that I've broken along the line as well, but I tried to do the right thing. Wouldn't it be easier if you could just buy records you like when you like them?