The fact is, I haven’t bought a CD or downloaded a track on iTunes for over a year. My MP3 player is, right now, gathering dust in a draw, and it’s full of tracks I transcoded from my rapidly ageing CD collection. And while I used to get a thrill out of firing up the various components of my hi-fi and losing myself in the expensive Sennheiser headphones I bought a decade ago, I’m now far more likely to be inserting the latest In The Night Garden CD at the behest of my young children.

So I’m not ashamed to say that part of the reason for my lack of music buying is that I’m getting older, but it’s not just that. It’s also that music has been devalued. Despite the “best efforts” of DRM, it takes just a nanosecond from the time a CD has been released to someone creating an MP3 and sharing that online.

And people – particularly anyone under 30 – see nothing wrong with sharing an MP3 with a friend, just as I see nothing wrong with lending a book to someone. The end result is that I could lay my hands on pretty much any track I wanted, whether through file-sharing sites or a colleague.

Which all, in a terribly long-winded way, leads me to my point. If I can get an MP3 for free, why should I be paying Amazon – which launched its music download service today - 69p? How much is music really worth when it’s just a file, when it’s not surrounded by the glorious paraphenalia that comes with a CD or (more convincingly) a vinyl LP?

In the end, what Amazon is asking me to pay for is convenience, for instant satisfaction. After all, in most cases I could just buy the CD version of the album on Amazon for exactly the same amount of money it’s asking for the download.

And we’ve already seen the power of convenience. It’s why iTunes lovers love iTunes: they see a track, they pay their money, and it’s not only on their computer but on their iPod. Despite the fact they’re generally paying 79p for the privilege of a DRM-locked file, when they could go out and buy the album and then actually do with it what they will, it’s arguably worth it.

Amazon shaves 10p off that price and removes all DRM too, but because it’s not part of an all-encompassing system like Apple’s – one click and you’re done – I don’t think it will have a huge impact.

Anyone who wants that convenience will already be an iTunes addict, while the rest of the population is probably evenly split between those that would rather take the music for free and those who would prefer to physically own the CD.

Oh, and there will be one other sector of the population too. Those, like me, who’ve stopped buying music altogether.

Double-click on first track, sitting neatly in Cardigans | Gran Turismo folder under My Music. Windows Media Player starts. Tells me it needs rights. Click ‘get rights’. Need to download Napster client.

Sigh.

11.3MB download takes five minutes.

Install Napster.

Click on track. Media Player starts.

Get asked if I’m a subscriber or Napster Light user.

Absolutely no idea.

Sigh.

Plump for ’subscriber’.

Get prompted to re-download the track I already have on my hard disc (see screenshot).

Go back and choose ‘Napster Light user’ instead.

Get told to “sign in to Napster and either buy it or sign up for a Napster subscription”.

Start up Napster client.

Can’t remember username or password.

Sigh.

Click ‘forgotten user name’, enter email address.

Wait for email.

Sign in. Get told I can have my music on up to 3 PCs. No idea if it’s been on that many PCs or not.

Click on track. Media Player starts.

Get told ‘sign in to Napster to play track’.

Finally establish that, apparently, I can’t play track in Media Player like I used to be able to.

Sigh.

Start Napster player client that I don’t want to use.

Find the album in the All Music folder.

Double-click the first track.

Only 30 seconds will play. Appears to be in demo/preview mode. Refuses to acknowledge I own the track.

Can’t find any way of playing the album that I’ve bought and paid for.

Stop caring.

Give up.

Total time wasted: Approximately fifteen minutes.

Total money wasted on album I can no longer play: £7.99