June 14th 2005
Free? What's the catch?
What is it about free stuff that makes me instantly suspicious? No, no, it must be inferior if it's free. The BBC is offering the entire Radio 3 Beethoven symphony cycle as a free six-hour download on its website. It's free, it's music, I love music - so why am I reluctant to slip it in to my iTunes folder?
It's something deep and mysterious in the human psyche, like putting stuff in a skip, then being annoyed if someone takes it. It doesn't make any sense, and yet I still haven't hit the download key. It's not like it's free porn, you know, rigged with some mucky virus that makes pictures of donkeys and German women pop up on the screen every time you log on. Not from the BBC. I mean, I read in the Daily Mail how standards have slipped, but I can't see Radio 3 hiding titty-pics in a Beethoven file.
It's not that I object to record labels that sell Beethoven's stuff losing out either. As far as I can tell, most record labels deserve to get screwed anyhow. My computer's got the space and I have broadband, so why not? The interpretation was very well reviewed: "radical and impactive - hair-raising precision" they said.
And yet ... well, you just can't tell with a freebie can you? Someone must be on the make somewhere. I think I'll leave it.
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