Oops, I'm trying to do it again!

Wired News: Speaking of Music Piracy ....
You know, to this day, I find it difficult to mention the RIAA without immediately following it with "those bastards". And here we are again.
Ya know, the whole reason I started using iTunes was so I could purchase individual songs without having to buy an entire album of crap. Now, the copyright owners are essentially looking for ways to force me to do that again, or charge me more.
Remember when cd's came out, and how one of the big selling points was the fact that they were cheaper to make than albums so naturally prices on them would drop, rather than increase?
Yeah.
Have you considered the fact that in this case, the actual pressing of the CD, the distribution to a bricks and mortars store, etc., etc., etc., is completely GONE?!? So you'd think things would be cheaper, right?
Yeah.
Have you considered the fact that it seems that these people have been looking for a reasonable, cost effective way to compete with free downloading via P2P, and having found something that looks like it just might work, now they're screwing with it to pt more money into their pockets?
Oh yeah.
I'm all for artists being paid. I'm all for distributors being paid. I'm not for a raise in cost without a corresponding rise in service, quality, or product. You want to charge me 2.49 for a song? Fine. For that price, I want the right to send a digital copy to up to three friends, or to attach it as background music to my webpage. You want to make hot tracks unavailable unless I purchase other, less popular tracks? Fine. Tack them on at no additional cost - as an advertisement for little known bands so that they get some exposure too, so maybe more of your artists are discovered by today's music listener.
Added value, folks. That's what makes DVDs infinitely superior to movie downloads. The ability to listen to commentaries, the clearer picture, behind the scenes featurettes, etc. make it WORTH MY MONEY to buy a DVD. You get to do more with a DVD than you can with a movie download over one of the P2P networks. Added value. Failure to present added value with added price will result in a couple of things - First, you'll see people driven away from the online distribution services, and to alternative forms of entertainment. Already, there's data suggesting that poor music sales may be attributed, at least in part, to competition from video games and DVD's. Anyway, enough of my amateurish ranting. Maybe there's a very good reason why we should pay more for digital music than we do on-line. Anyone who can think of one, let me know.
Because I sure can't think of any.