I do agree that the 1974 Album Night moves is best listened too from start to finish. But these post napster days when people download perfectly flawless flac and wave downloads in minutes means the people that BUY recorded music rarely have too. Many albums by big artists are online for download weeks before they hit Walmart.

I think an artist should be able to offer for sale their music in any shape or form they desire- One entire album only? Then let them suffer the loss in sales and increase in free downloads. Neither the record companies nor the artists are in control of the recorded music market anymore- a 5 year old can download free music that is for sale in walmart.

I too have my own music online for sale and I know how widespread free downloading is. I bet Bob Seger was surprised after his 11 year vacation and he actually put some real work in a producing a compact disc post napster, only to find out everyone already owned a copy before it hit the stores. Lady Ga Ga sales a few, but only because millions CHOOSE to be honest and pay for her stuff, and it may not last forever.

Long gone are the days of young adults dropping $150 bucks a check for a few CDs on pay-day. And we have millions of great tunes recorded before P2P computer programs took away their profits. Now most artists have to find real jobs or, if their lucky, they can live off of money made during the Mtv Compact Disc boom a couple decades back. Hell, Kid Rock is one of the few artists left that actually seems to try to produce an album worth buying these days (IMHO). Sometimes I wonder why the ones that do even bother.

I’m willing to accept the idea that certain albums, especially in the jazz world, were conceived-of as a single creative unit, for example, Miles’ Sketches of Spain. But let’s face it, you can even buy individual MOVEMENTS of symphonies and chamber works in classical music (although I’ve never done that and don’t know why anyone would). So efforts by artists like Seger, Aerosmith, Boz Scaggs, and others to force people to buy the whole album to get one song are ridiculous, as well as transparent in their greediness.

Many of us would prefer to pay a reasonable price for a song so the artist and production people can receive payment for their efforts. But if the artist and label won’t meet the music-buying public halfway, and OFFER individual songs for sale, we ALL know many alternative ways of getting the music we want.

Many of Seger’s songs have nostalgia themes. Singing about some sweet golden past of our youth is one thing, but trying to cling to music distribution models that went past their fresh date in 1998 fails.