So, straight up here:  I have no gripes with Apple over their variable pricing scheme.  Granted, it seems like most everything you’d WANT to download is now $1.29 per song, but it’s not like the 30 cents is going to break me.

On the other hand, they’re proudly proclaiming that the store is now DRM-free, which is great, except that they appear to have achieved this laudable goal by dropping an awful lot of artists.

Specifically – and this is just from looking for a couple of minutes, so it’s far from a complete list – it looks like Ayumi Hamasaki, Halko Momoi and Kotoko are all gone.  MOSAIC.WAV is still up on the store, so it’s not a total J-pop-calypse, but it’s …

gods I can’t believe I just wrote that, and I’m going to leave it just to show how lame I can be when I try to be funny

…it’s still a pretty weak way to make marketing copy.

Steve, you listened to me about the whole HD movie rental thing, so I know you’re paying attention.  I know you’re busy and all, but can you take care of this next?

Thanks.