No, iTunes, you ADD previews, not take them away!

Since last Thursday the iTunes Music Store added the 1:30 previews of all of Scotty's songs from "Clear As Day" on-line, I though perhaps today I could finally hear the previews for Lauren Alaina's "Wildflower" album. But, not only are Lauren's preview snippets not there, but now they have taken down Scotty's as well! "Clear As Day" is being released in only 5 days and they take down the previews? And of course, Amazon does not have previews for either album or even a track listing unless you look in the MP3 store for "Clear As Day". "Wildflower" is not even listed as a MP3 album on Amazon with her release only 12 days away. Is Amazon too busy pushing the new Kindle Fire? I thought the record companies and on-line retailers actually wanted to sell music? I am glad I had recorded Scotty's previews off of iTunes using Audacity and saved them as an MP3 file. If anyone wants a copy of my MP3 file let me know. I do not know how they plan on selling anything without any previews on-line.

I checked a bunch of other on-line retailers and none of them have sound samples for either album:

WalMart.com: Both albums are available for $11.88, and "Clear As Day" is available as both a regular CD and the special "ZinePack" for $14.88. "Wildflower" does not have a track listing posted yet, and this is from the company that sold their EP's! Between the two of them they sold over 250,000 EP's for Walmart (that's $1,250,000) and they cannot even list the tracks on the albums and have preview clips.

Target.com: "Clear As Day" is $13.99 there without even a track listing and they do not even have 'Wildflower" listed. I guess they do not plan on selling very many.

Barnes & Noble: "Clear As Day" is on sale for $9.83 and it does have a track listing, but of course no clips. "Wildflower" is $11.42 without a track listing.

Best Buy: "Clear As Day" is on sale for $9.99 without a track listing or clips. "Wildflower" is $11.99 and it does not even have album art!

FYE: They have both standard prices and "member" prices for their music. "Clear as Day" and "Wildflower" are both $10.79 for members and $11.99 for non-members. That alone makes me not want to buy anything there. I know my son once received a gift certificate for FYE, but I was not overly impressed with the place.

CDUniverse: CDUniverse actually had "Clear As Day" on their front page, on sale for $12.74. However, for such prominent placement the site does not even have a track listing for the album. "Wildflower" is also priced at $12.74.

DeepDiscount: They have "Clear As Day" listed as a Deal Grabber for $10.99. They offer free shipping for sales over $15, so if you also buy "Wildflower" here for $12.82 that would be both albums for $23.81 including shipping and tax-free. That is not a bad deal!

I will personally probably purchase "Clear As Day" on Tuesday from Amazon as an MP3 album for $9.49. I may purchase "Wildflower" there eventually too if I can ever actually find it as an MP3 album there and hear the preview tracks. Funny how that works isn't it?