Many of the comments underneath the article casually state "it is not stealing; it is copyright infringement". They often compare taking a CD from a shop to downloading the same content from the Internet. It appears they hold the CD in much higher regard: in this instance it is stealing — they are taking a product permanently and from that point it cannot further be sold; whereas the content on the Internet is not stealing since the product still exists. Rubbish.

What is the difference between two lumps of plastic and bits of paper cunningly shaped and moulded to produce exactly the right noise and a collection of beeps and bumps that make the same noise? The CD is, after all, merely a copy of a song; no less so than the copy available for download. CDs can be replicated, as can digital media files. When you think that CDs cost little more than their electronic counterparts (if you look in the right places, granted), what is the difference between stealing a CD from HMV and downloading content without paying and sticking it on your own CD? Perhaps just a matter of pence.

However, downloading content to try it out is cited as being a motivating factor to buy further content. At the moment I am watching Skins episodes from 4OD — Channel 4′s On Demand service. I could be persuaded to buy a DVD of Skins and I might perhaps watch the next series of it on the television. Of course, I pay for it in the advertising I receive, and perhaps this is the way forward for on demand music downloads. Not sure I want Kris Marshall selling me BT phones in the middle of an album though…

The judges have drawn up a shortlist of twelve albums of which I expect they feel are at the forefront of British music. As such, I am a little interested in them. Last year, I tried to find the cheapest CD prices on the Internet and post them here. For the lot, it would have cost £91.62 at the time, which isn’t bad for twelve albums, but still more than I was willing to pay. This year, I am going to try to find the cheapest legitimate means possible to obtain the music. It is a little fairer that way, I feel.

Amy Winehouse » Back to Black

£6.99 BangCd (CD)

Arctic Monkeys » Favourite Worst Nightmare

£6.99 BangCd (CD)

Basquiat Strings » Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford

£8.97 Amazon (CD)

Bat For Lashes » Fur and Gold

£7.99 HMV (CD), iTunes (Download)

Dizzee Rascal » Maths + English

£7.99 BangCd, Play.com (CD); iTunes (Download)

Fionn Regan » The End Of History

£7.99 Play.com (CD), iTunes (Download)

Jamie T » Panic Prevention

£6.99 BangCd (CD)

Klaxons » Myths of the Near Future

£6.99 BangCd (CD)

Maps » We Can Create

£7.99 HMV (CD), iTunes (Download)

New Young Pony Club » Fantastic Playroom

£6.98 Amazon (CD)

The View » Hats Off to the Buskers

£7.97 Amazon (CD)

The Young Knives » Voices of Animals and Men

£7.99 iTunes (Download)

This comes to £91.83 – a whole 21p more than last year (that’s inflation for ya!). But this exercise wasn’t in vain: I learnt a few lessons. Bands shouldn’t come up with their album names. Downloads aren’t cheaper. Amazon has terrible addressing. You can save a few pence by shopping around (often literally). But most of all, music ain’t cheap. So if you think you love music, like me, listen to crap stuff that was out two years ago that you can often find in service station bargain bins. It’s cheaper.

As a note, the shops I used for the comparison are: Amazon, BangCd, HMV, iTunes and Play.com. These are sites I have used before. I didn’t use Woolworths or CD WOW! because I would expect that you, like myself, would rather listen to the music some time before the winner is announced, and in any case before next year’s nominations are announced. I didn’t include Napster because I couldn’t be bothered to download it. I didn’t use any other shops because after checking those five I really couldn’t be asked to check any more. Please feel free to update me if prices change or if you find them cheaper. Then I can ignore you and make rude gestures in front of my computer screen towards your comments. (Joking, of course! )

My other purchase yesterday was a new electric shaver. My old one was a Christmas present from when I was 14, so being seven years old and cutting like a feather duster it was time for a new one. Boots are having a bit of a sale, so I obliged. I forked out £24.99 for a Remington R320. Tasty.

I also still do not have Dream Theater’s Systematic Chaos CD+DVD, largely down to the ineptitude of a certain company that won’t be named here.

I’ll name it here instead. If you want to purchase any solid music, don’t visit CD WOW.

Peruvian Skies is a song by Dream Theater from the album Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence. And here is my perfect opportunity to tell you about CD WOW. I recently attempted to purchase Dream Theater’s most recent release, Systematic Chaos from CD WOW. I placed my order a few days after its release on 4th June. It is still recorded as a pre-release on their website, and after some correspondence, the situation is that I’m not likely to get the album any time soon, and they have my money. So I shall avoid them in future…

I used them because the special edition of the album with DVD was cheapest with them at £10.99. I have noticed that the same album is at HMV for the same price.

I wanted to get some Red Hot Chili Peppers albums. I’ve had their Greatest Hits album for a few years now, and I had always enjoyed their music. With any band I take a liking to, it is usually because I have bought their greatest hits albums or bought one of their albums on the cheap. I then like what I hear then proceed to buy all their albums. It happened with Queen, The Police, Dream Theater… and now RHCP.

I went into HMV today, looking at their newest album Stadium Arcadium. On finding it, I saw three different prices for the same album, those being £9.95, £13 and £15. I found the first price the most enticing, though not enough for me to complete the purchase. I did however notice that some of the other albums were on offer: two for £10. I selected By The Way and Californication – both albums I know fairly well but had not extended myself to buy. When it came to buying it, I also thought (cheekily) that I should try to use my student card. 10% off, £9 to pay, thank you very much!

I was also looking for some new earphones. Weiran had alerted me to a company called Sennheiser. They make the Sennheiser CX300, which fit inside the ear. Most places sell for just less than £40 for this pair of earphones. However, I noticed that Play.com sell them for £29.99 for the white pair, and £27.99 for the black pair. The silver ones are still around £40. Encouraged by my find, I continued to shop around. I strayed onto Amazon – which isn’t something I normally do – and spotted all three for under £18, so I got the silver one for £17.84 including delivery.

Shop around bargain hunters!

• Nothing Like The Sun by Sting
• A Change Of Seasons by Dream Theater
• The Poison by Bullet For My Valentine

I also bought the first season of Futurama on DVD. So my choices were rather varied…

The other album I bought was Dream Theater’s Octavarium – a bit more of a metal album, so you cannot argue I don’t mix my sounds. I’ve had a listen to most of it – in fact I’ve listened to all of it bar 15 minutes of the 24 minute epic title song Octavarium at the end. Yeah it’s ok – definitely not a chillout piece. It only cost me £3.97, so I snapped it up.

I’ve listened to The Wall from start to finish. It’s good, but it takes long enough!

I also went to watch Newcastle United in the Intertoto Cup yesterday. We drew (just). We didn’t play very well at all. We lacked a bit of awareness and communication. The Norwegian side, Lillestrom, are half way through their football season, so they have had a better opportunity to prepare. I suppose, in that case, we didn’t play badly for it being the first game of the season.

My biggest annoyance, however, was the sun. It remained in our eyes until the second half, by which time I was getting a headache. Then Luque scored. Ouch! Still, I’m better now!

We decided the night before that we would head to Maidstone and go bowling before we decided where we were going to go for our ‘road trip’ the next day. As it happens, the bowling was booked out, so we were out on our ear. James bought Schindler’s List on DVD from HMV, and we headed off. To Bearsted Green.

It was there in the hazy sunshine the scene was set. Two cars, two drivers, five passengers. Nick and James driving a Punto and a Fiesta respectively – myself and Steve in the Fiesta; Donna, Pete and Russell in the Fiesta. We pointed along the south coast on the map until fingers rested on Hastings. So along the A229 we headed before coming to rest at Cranbrook, where we stocked up on supplies (this is starting to sound like Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Road Trippin’). Then we continued the journey of near-death experiences (wreckless manoeuvres and skidding lorries) towards Hastings. On arrival, we descended the hills and played adventure golf. It is much more fun to play half-arsed, it is worth the embarrassment of being beaten by Donna (though I didn’t quite manage that either!). Pete pushed me into the sea and we mucked about for a bit before returning to Sittingbourne.

And after some of the worst decisions ever made this century, we managed to get to the Chinese. And as ever it was fantastic. Those bird-eye chillis were much hotter than I remember though – I shan’t be chewing the seeds in future!