Grumbling about Amazon MP3

amazonmp31.jpgI think that Amazon MP3 is a great service, but the pricing is _so_ wrong.  I considered downloading the latest Sheryl Crow disk, but it is priced only $1 less than the actual CD.  I don’t understand economically how that is a win for me — I lose the album art and I have to preserve the bits myself instead of having a CD as backup (after it is ripped into my music player).  I believe that if the pricing were closer to 50% of the CD purchase price, this would be a huge win for the consumer and the music industry.  It’s a no-brainer to justify $5 for a download.