Heh. I think you are mixing up the large label thieves with the small indie labels that are much better at actually supporting the artists. To acknowledge and support your point, I refuse to buy ANY music from the large labels- Last CD I think I purchased might have been in 1998?

And - I LOLd at your description in the first part, your turn of phrase, it was very droll.

Between spotify (paid) for streaming, and eMusic.com for DRM free MP3s, I can get about 98% of the music I'm looking for.

eMusic does NOT roll over unused minutes, I read someplace they use it to cover other artist-related costs (no citation available)

They have things ranging from megastars like Oumou Sangare from Mali to the Polyphonic voices of Sardinia, and South Asian classical music to Tuvan throatsinging via Shona mbira.

I have no connection with either company, I just like them both a lot. Not as much as I like RainX, but pretty darned close.