I agree that small, quiet Paul is the best. My favorite of his Beatles tracks by far are Blackbird and Mother Nature’s Son. Those first two solo records are his best imo too.

I still think his arrival here is generally a very sad thing. Same for the EMI catalog if it ever shows up here as the DRM-free age dawns for the majors. I like Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, Kraftwerk…and everyone on the DFA imprints is among my favorite major-label bands. Several of those definitely count as indie by any definition besides their distributor. Emusic will be a big help to people like The Juan McLean, for example.

But I fear for the sub-The National, Pixies and Sufjan artists — they’ll always get attention. But just from my recent downloads, 13&God, Boy in Static, pelpp and a.vanvranken, Bark: Psychosis, Over the Atlantic, Slowdive’s Pygmailion, Songs of Green Pheasant…you get the idea. How are they going to stay as visible as they are? Today’s Top Albums is a great tool for me. How’s that going to work with David Gilmour and the Sex Pistols clogging it up? (Again, I like every EMI artist I’m mentioning.)

I promise that it’s not that I want emusic to stay under the radar. I want it to rule the universe with an iron fist, raining down lightning bolts and empty spaghettios cans on iTunes. I want people like you and Michael A to be richer than Zsa Zsa, and able to slap as many cops and get away with it as she did. I sincerely hope that adding DRM-free major artists will help all of you achieve those goals.

But I want the same things for Ben Massarella and Tim Rutili. Okay, and anybody else in Califone besides them. And Felt and Couch and Head Like a Kite and Dirty on Purpose.

I know that indie artists will never vanish at emusic. You’ll all try to help as much as you always have. I like that the McCartney page has all those indie artists too. A very cool way to spread the love.

But every banner for McCartney, Faith Evans or Iron Maiden will mean fewer for Michael Nyman and Ellen Alien. How can it not?

I have faith in emusic, but Yancey, I’m worried about Evil Beaver.

Thanks again for Archers.

Yr pal,
Tim