So last night I did something I didn't think I would do, I bought an downloadable album in MP3 format. Usually I prefer to buy lossless FLAC, but after a good show I tend to be in an acquisitive mood. The band was using isongcard.com. The gimick is you give your money to the band at the show and the give you a card with a code on it that allows you to download the album. I can see the attraction from the band's point of view: you actually make the sales, rather than a vague possibility that someone might go to your site later, and you don't have to carry crates of CDs around with you. From a consumer point of view, it is not quite as satisfying as carting off a CD, but maybe I am in the last generation that feels that way.

At first I thought this might have something to do with itunes, which discouraged me because I have to borrow a computer (ok, borrow it from my wife, downstairs, but still) in order to run Windows, to run itunes. But when I saw the self printed cards with hand-printed 16 digit pin numbers, I thought there might be hope. And indeed, it turns out to be quite any-browser/any-OS-friendly. I downloaded the songs using arora, and they are ready to go. I have only two complaints (aside from the FLAC thing).

• I had to download each song individually. Some kind of archive (say zip) would have been preferable.

• The songs didn't have any tags.

So overall, kudos to isongcard (and good luck fending off Apple's lawyers about your name).