Well I already knew that
Jamendo allowed you to download their catalogue in Ogg, but by itself it was just an interesting side-note. (Jamendo being the primary site to get liberally licensed music, often biased towards francophone nymphs)
But to my surprise I tried Fedora 7 Rhythmbox a few minutes ago, expecting nothing much but the pile of Gnomic crud that assaulted me last time I tried it. Ah no, mashed up with Jamendo (but apparently not as planned Magnatune) Rhythmbox has become more than the sum of the parts and has crashed uninvited into iTunes territory.
It has become a native client app you can start up and listen to a big catalogue of liberally licensed music, not only without the expectation of having money sucked from your living veins but even with the expectation of being moved to voluntarily donate to the people sending you their hard work for free, when you especially appreciated what they offered.
And there on the menu bar is the legal, sanctioned, intentional "download album" button. In the face of this must you go and give money to the lawyer loving corporate coke snorting beast-creatures for mainstream crud? Or should you not set out to make a direct connection with the artists and show them your appreciation in a direct and personal way?
An extraordinary advance for standard Linux media players!
