Digital Distribution is the next step for media, that has become apparent. The question is do we want it or are we ready for it. Some people have predicted that digital distribution will become the norm in the next 5 years. Is this a good thing? Is it something you want? Are you against it because of DRM issues?

For me personally I don't think digital distribution will become the norm in 5 years. I think for it to even become equal to physical media (in terms of sales) it will take 10-15 years, unless the content providers force the switch on us by removing or limiting the availability of physical media. Myself, and many others I'm sure, still prefer to have a physical copy to hold. When I buy a movie, CD, or video game I want to be able to look at the back of the box, read liner notes, have a full color manual, the kind of things digital distribution doesn't provide.

Has digital distribution made the available media content better? I think it has. There are games such as Braid that are fantastic, one of the best I have played, that could not have survived in a traditional brick and mortar packaged goods store. iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Zune Marketplace, and even artists' personal websites have allowed me access to music I would not be able to purchase in my local record stores. Hell digital distribution has allowed people to obtain music for free (read: illegally) for over 10 years. E-readers allow me to carry volumes upon volumes of literature with me wherever I go.

There are plenty more benefits to physical media as well. Do you want to loan your friend a movie, game, or CD? Well you can't because the DRM only allows you to use the content on your device while logged in with your account and password. Did your hard drive die or did you clean install a new OS? Well your device has changed so you need to use another of your limited number of licenses to authorize the same computer to use the content, and if you are out of licenses that sucks for you.

Digital content is definitely an important part of the future but I am not ready for it to be the only show in town.

But digital media also allows you an avenue to release your music at a cost much lower than actually pressing CDs and to a much wider audience.

However sometimes on iTunes and online music download sites the albums cost more than a CD.I once bought an Insomniac CD for $9 when on iTunes it costs $17.00.
Personally i think digital downloading is made for cheapskates.I don't get a lot and have thought about it once or twice but never have done it.It can take down artists sales.I mean the struggling people need all the money they can get.(Does anybody remember when Lars Ulrich had a stap at Napster?)

You don't make much money from selling songs or album, that in itself is more marketing than anything. Best way to make money is through gigging, and plus if you don't have a label I can only assume more of the money from the gigs go to you? Sure it might make publicity harder, but not impossible.

It is perfectly straightforward to be a successful recording artist, it just takes a lot of time, effort and talent. For most bands I listen to, very little of it is about marketing. Mostly it's about building an audience one way or another, that will continue to support you.

The attitude some people have is "I can download music if I go to shows and buy a t-shirt once a year" which is so backwards. Touring is underpaid for most musicians.

When it comes to digital distribution, I'm fine with it for PC games, since those don't need to move around. Music though, I want the art. the disc, the box, completely separate from my computer, because to me a large aspect of the experience of music is the object itself. It doesn't seem real to me without a booklet that I will read and absorb and internalise.

I also don't really dig the idea of digital distribution for films, because the way I see it, blu-ray is really stupidly high quality. That's where I want to be. I want films to be something you simply can't download, because it means that you sit down and take it all in, in the best way available to you. I don't see why we'd go all the way to blu-ray and then go "the future is digital distribution."

Nah, don't get me wrong. I'd rather be able to do what I love, which is just playing for the hell of it, than make tons of money. The majority of my income is from selling merch. Currently I've just been lending a hand to anyone who needs it, but in the past I've filled in on drums for Himsa, and the biggest bands I used to be in are Book Of Black Earth and a group called Hatefist (yeah, I know, the name sucks), though I was kicked from BOBE cause I was mugged on the way to a gig, and that was "my fault" and I left Hatefist cause didn't like the direction they were going in.