STRATOVARIUS: Mainman Wants Your Opinion On MP3 and CD Sales

STRATOVARIUS mainman/guitarist Timo Tolkki has posted this message on his MySpace page:

"As you know, the CD sales are going down rapidly. Also most of the big labels including Sony/BMG being the last, removed the copy protection from their MP3 online files. This is a big step. We may see record stores and record companies disappearing completely. This could mean that the music gets a lot cheaper to buy. How do you guys feel about this and what are you gonna do if there no more record stores to walk in and buy your records?

Some MP3 albums come with artwork as well and yes, there will be Internet shops who sell CDs too probably. I am just interested to hear how you people as buying customers feel about this. I like, for example, to buy records from my home. Basically I can also order CDs from home. The English band RADIOHEAD made their album available first only as MP3s in their homepage letting the customer decide what to pay for that. That shows a lot of courage. It basically says: if you care about us, you at least pay something, use your conscious. Then they stopped the sales after one month and prepared for a CD release. Everybody said it won't sell, but it went straight to number one in Britain."

Fans can post comments to Tolkki on his MySpace page.