[tptacek]

It was fun hunting for things. It was fun finding out about the best record stores, which were always skillfully camouflaged to look like run-down used record stores. It was fun bumping into people and it was fun to have your cred affirmed by approving comments from the clerk when you bought a CD or asked them to order something from a catalogue.

But it is better this way for everybody but the middlemen.

[hboon]

Not really. Apple is the new middlemen (and has been for a while).

So more accurately: it's better for everybody but the previous middlemen.