Well, after reading that I have the same reaction I do every time I read yet another one of Steve Albini's whining screeds against the music industry. Yawn.

Seriously, am I supposed to care how this guy justifies his theft[1]? Oh, right... he's really writing this because he wants to show how much he cares for the music industry/musicians/world of music/what have you, and because he's trying to straighten them out. He's a good friend trying to perform an intervention before they really hurt themselves. Oh horsepuckey. If he really gave a damn, he could have taken that ~15,000$ he claims to have spent in a single year and started a little record lable, like Kranky or Racket. He could have led the way and treated his artists and customers fairly and properly. Or he could have started an outfit like CD Baby and done the same thing -- hell, he could have hit up the Albinis and Courtney Loves of the world for investments, because they're all so concerned about the state of the music industry that they'd gladly pony up their own dough to change things for the better, right? Right...? Bueller...?

But nah! It's easier to write an open letter to no one in particular to wash away your sins and convince yourself that you're doing the right thing... And this way you get the side benefit of keeping your cash to spend on more CDs. Yawn.

Also: Did anyone else find it odd that he brags about knowing about the Idlewild release date in Europe, talking about how the "world is all connected now, we are not beholden to you for information." But then in the very next paragraph he goes off on how he had to go to France to discover Kyo? I guess the world is only small when you want it to be, eh glenn? Too bad we're beholden to the record companies to tell us about all the different bands of the world. Oh, waitaminute...

[1] And I really don't want to get into the standard /. argument over the denotative nuances of the word theft and its applicability to unapproved music downloads. Its use here is close enough for government work...