  I'm really concerned about this Sony/BMG merge, its becoming dangerously clear that we're one step closer to the concept of 'THE Record Company' wherein all majors will have merged to collectively sack thousands of people and use their monopoly to further rip-off the artists. It is kind of a strange merge though, I mean, I always thought of Sony as a cold, heartless money-making machine, not concerned with the welfare/longevity of the artist, whereas BMG seem more Artist oriented... Maybe I've just been brainwashed by Australian Idol.
But what has emerged as a more hilarious strategy to combat&nbsp; downloading and its threat to Record Companies, is BMG have come up with the ridiculous concept of selling High, Mid and Low price versions of the same CD. 'High' have all the pretty artwork that people&nbsp;pay to get and Low having absolutely no artwork at all. HELLO!!!!???? That is the most fuckin stupid thing I've ever heard!!! A) As if anyone is gonna pay $14 dollars for a CD (specifically from BMG) without artwork when they could much more conveniently download for the same or even lower price (if legal at all).
B) what&nbsp;Artist is gonna want their product sold for $14 looking like shit, stripping them of artistic integrity&nbsp;and blatantly exposing them solely as a 'product' for shipping and sales?&nbsp; C) people only BUY CDs these day for the artwork so it won't make a shit of difference!&nbsp; grrrrrrrrrrr.... its obviously monday.............&nbsp; 
