Isn't this a bit like when you have the opportunity to sample snippets of each song on a CD by scanning the UPC code at Walmart or Borders Books or Barnes and Noble and you therefore get to tell abit whether you really want to purchase it?
I wasn't expecting this "treat", as someone has called it, either.
But if you download these without getting the hard copy version or through itunes it is stealing--I agree.
But I think the best point of all...if it is true (I'm not a techie by any means--Correct me if I'm wrong) that when the NME stream came out people would just download it that way then, ahead of time as well, for nothing.
As for burning the whole album to a "cheap CD hand written on with a sharpie" that's just really cheesey, I'm sorry. You're cheating yourself of owning the real deal/gem.
November 23rd, glorious November 23rd is still a day to go down in infamy as far as I am concerned, where there will still be plenty of "treats" lurking to be discovered through the CD photos/artwork and not that Bono doesn't orate clear enough but have all the lyrics as well, I'm sure.
One thing with the apple itunes iPod though... I think it perpetuates the idea of downloading without owning the original hard copy "albums". Is U2 shooting itself in the foot? Actually I think not; they'll be raking even more $ in the end in my estimation. For the non die hard U2 fans paying to download singles or for the ones shelling out the $350+ for the U2 iPod and whole back catalog. The U2 iPod will be bought (=+the 400 some U2 box set) by the people who already have all their music 'cos it's U2's entire repritoire plus some unreleased material on the go. I know this would be awesome to just reel through the whole history without having to putz around juggling/finding the various hard copies the tunes you want hear are on and this will be the end of making your own U2 mix CDs as well. Will it not?
P.S.- Was this too long? Sorry. It's just that I felt passionate about this and maybe it had to do with the fact that I can't believe 4 years of waiting and I ruined the "magic" of having thee release in my grubby little hands upon arrival date. I won't listen to the downloads anymore... BUT my hearing it before hand doesn't mean that HTDAAB will be "just any other CD" as a result, as someone else has said. It's extraordinary. Great things really are worth the wait.
My two cents thanks for listening!
Waddayal think?