Ku-u-i-pod

On Elvisnews.com you can read some pretty aggressive comments regarding iPods and mp3 players. The bottom line seems to be that bootleg labels such as Southern Comfort will be forced to shut down their business because of the competition from the "file-swapping movement" and "downloading craze."

I don't agree. I think there will always be a demand for bootlegs, especially for strong releases such as The American Way series. Just look at the Follow That Dream label. One of the reasons it started back in 1999 was because of all the bootlegs. But did it stop them? Nope.

Let me tell you straight away that I don't support illegal downloading from the Internet. No way. But I have a hard time understanding how you can blame one illegal thing and defend the other. I mean, bootlegs are illegal, right?

Another thing I don't understand is the reasoning that "iPods are why I still buy CDs." Why must one thing exclude the other? I too like buying and collecting CDs, reading the liner notes and listening to the tracks on my stereo. But that doesn't stop me from downloading the music into my iPod and taking it with me whenever I'm travelling somewhere.

To me, that's the real benefit of owning an iPod, that I always have access to the Elvis Presley catalogue, wherever I happen to be. (Right now I have about 1 200 Elvis songs on my iPod and it's only half full.)

And don't forget the younger generation. There are, after all, legal ways of buying songs on the Internet, and if the kids discover Elvis by downloading him, then what's the problem? And who knows? After a while maybe they'll want to buy real CDs as well!