It doesn't yet pain me to say that I broke down and downloaded iTunes today. So far, the only thing I've downloaded was Bill Clinton's speech from the DNC, but that was free, so I'm still financially afloat. What may eventually "pain me to say this" is my tendency to like a lot of music and the expected cost of a compatible portable player (I'll probably buy the upcoming 'hPod' version).

Oh and to explain why I'm so late jumping on the online music service bandwagon, I was sort of waiting to get a good idea of which portable player to get. Once I finally decided (though not yet purchased) the choice was pretty easy as to which service I would join. I don't expect this to stop me from buying CDs, I just absolutely love the format too much to completely abandon it. I do hope, however, that it will help me make better decisions about which CDs to buy. Then, for the songs that I become completely obsessed with but don't like the whole CD, I'm one click away from feeding my obsession. And we all know how inhumane it is to deprive ourselves of our obsessions.

[Edit] It's probably relevant to point out my initial reservations regarding the iPod, other hard drive based MP3 players. Oh, and just to be perfectly clear here, nothing has changed regarding my reasons for NOT purchasing one. My first impression of the whole thing was just not very good.