The rise of the MP3 has caused much speculation over the past few years about the viability and future of the album-length format. With instant access to inexpensive (or, cough, complimentary) single tracks, who even listens to albums anymore? Who even cares? Well, Pink Floyd does. According to Reuters, the band just won a UK lawsuit against its longtime label EMI—and the company is now no longer permitted to sell downloads of individual songs from the group's concept albums, which include such bazillion-sellers as The Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall. Pink Floyd is against such "unbundling," and the judge in this case agreed, saying that the ruling will help "preserve the artistic integrity of the albums." So, yeah, there you go: Listening to "Money" or "Comfortably Numb" sans those songs' original contexts is doing Pink Floyd an aesthetic disservice. Now would Roger Waters please call every classic-rock radio station in the world and tell them that?
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