I'd like to muddy the waters a bit with an issue that I don't think has been addressed yet. In '95 or so when JMT released three CDs by Tim Berne & Bloodcount, I had a few options. 1) special order the discs at Borders and wait two weeks for them to tell me that it was on back order - absolutely no store in the area at the time stocked any JMT releases, 2) search for some mail-order service that would carry the CDs - not as easy then as now, or 3) avail myself of any of the _multiple promotional_ copies of each release that had been unloaded at each of several Half Price Books stores in the area. I have quite alot of the JMT catalog, and all of the CDs have "No Sale Allowed/Must Be Returned On Demand Of Copyright Holder" stamped on them. I never bought a new JMT CD because I just couldn't find them outside of the $2.00 rack at the aforementioned Half Price Books. When Tim Berne visited the yellow skies of Houston the following year and I drove five hours to see him(and we both ended up staying at the Grant Motel), I mentioned this problem to him. He said JMT was intent on "promoting their catalog out of existence." I'm sure much of the impetus for the creation of Screwgun came from this fact. What's more, to this day there is no need to pay full price for a new major-label distributed release(some labels are worse than others, but Luaka Bop, Sub Pop, and V2 spring to mind) because the local used CD stores, both chain and indie, often carry nothing _but_ used promo or even advance copies for certain artists. I can only speculate as to the origin of the situation, but I know the assclown who writes for the local arm of New Times, Inc. - sorry, "alternative weekly" - accounts for a good chunk of it. I would imagine one of the reasons Tzadik is still around is that they don't piss away promo copies the way the majors do. And on the subject of copying CDs today, when much of anything you could want will be available for purchase online - if the release is in print, and I like the work of the artist, I pays the money and buys the damn CD. I can't imagine settling for a CD-R of the work of an artist you respect when a few minutes of mousing(and the money) will get you the original and in the best of circumstances put some money in the artist's pocket - and I know quite a few people who never buy an original release; film score collectors are the worst. For me, there's no point to b&m stores anymore - all my music is purchased online. The only CD-Rs I have are concert recordings that are unavailable commercially or releases that are completely out of print _and_ don't show up on eBay. I add the disclaimer that I am a low-level collector scum and that the only bad OOP release is one that I want but don't have. Someone mentioned copying CDs as a way of sharing music with others and getting them interested in new artists. That never works for me; I just wait until the artists music gets used in a commercial, which seems the only way the great unwashed will accept new music. If the Stooges and Mingus can sell SUVs and Fred Frith can sell whatever it is that Merrill-Lynch is selling, then "Agitated" by the Electric Eels should show up in a Maytag commercial any day now.