Hubris among entertainers

While listening to a CNET podcast on tech news for the week, I heard a piece on how the groups Pink Floyd and AC/DC are unhappy with music distributor EMI.  One of these groups either has or plans to sue EMI over its unbundling and selling its music as single offerings.

Before going further, let's think back to how we used to purchase music prior to iTunes, iPods, and MP3 players.  In the days of CDs and further back to vinyl LPs, we consumers had to purchase the entire album as opposed to just the individual songs we wanted.  Of course, there were the old "45's" and single cassettes that never seemed to have the selection.  Some albums, like Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" was chocked full of great songs.  My experience, however, was to await a group's greatest hits album which was more cost effective and yet in some cases still contained "filler" songs.

Now back to EMI, Pink Floyd, and AC/DC.  Both groups find having to sell their songs as singles "distasteful".  From a profit and pride standpoint, they want their fans to purchase the entire album.  My response to these entertainers is this:

1.  what if we don't want to purchase the entire album, CD, etc.?

2.  wouldn't be better if consumers purchased some of the songs as opposed to not buying anything due to the price of the entire CD?  haven't these companies and celebrity agents ever studied economics and learned the concept of "opportunity costs"?

3.  why can't the musicians and music industry listen to its customers and provide selections and the options they want as opposed to suing consumers over illegal downloads or each other over packaging?

4.  wouldn't it be better if consumers can purchase music for $0.99 per song, like on iTunes, and store only the songs they want on the computers and iPods?

It baffles me that this industry just thumbs its collective nose at consumers.  It irritates me when I go to iTunes looking to purchase one song only to discover that I have to purchase the entire album.  Typically, I just skip the purchase altogether.  A $12.99 CD/album is far much more than a $0.99 single.  If I really want the song, I go to other services.

Like the newspaper, automobile, retailing, book publishing, TV news, and others, the music industry needs to realize that the internet has changed everything.  Wouldn't it be easier to embrace the change versus fighting it?  Wouldn't everyone come out okay in the end?