I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday getting my CD collection up to date: ripping those stupid plastic cases to pieces and filing all the CDs and sleeve notes. The results strewn over the floor of my lounge. It doesn’t just show what music means to me, it also demonstrates the need for an effective replacement of CDs because of the expense and consumption of resources required to produce them. When the iTunes Music Store was launched in the UK I did buy quite a few albums. But I eventually convinced myself that it wasn’t worth it, except for albums that are physically unavailable. The reasons being lack of sleeve notes and the relatively low quality of the AAC files. I’m not prepared to compromise on either of these. I only keep CDs as backups and for the rare times that I lend my music to other people.

It would be great if the packaging of CDs were more minimal: the Tori Amos concert bootlegs are simple cardboard sleeves. But the packaging that currently dominates CDs exists to assist the sales process. Imagine how manky cardboard sleeves would get after a few weeks in a store. But something has to be done.