MusicPass - Another Swing and Miss from Sony BMG

Am I missing something? Is Sony BMG forcing consumers to go to the store to buy a card that then then bring back to their house to redeem online?? Can you not just go directly to the site to buy? Add why do the labels continue to think that consumers know (or care) what label an artist is on? I don't want to have to buy my milk at one store and my eggs at another.... I want one place where I can find everything.

All of you planning to get my a gift card this year... don't get me this one. :-)

Ugh.

Musicpass: "New York, NY - Monday, January 7, 2008 -- SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT today announced the launch of Platinum MusicPass, a series of digital album cards that enable consumers to download full-length albums, and in many cases special bonus content, in the form of high-quality MP3 files. The first 37 titles in the series, which represent musical genres ranging from Rock and Pop to R&B and Country, will debut on January 15th, 2008 and by the end of the month will be available at 4,500 retail outlets across the United States. In Canada, MusicPass will debut in late January of 2008.

UPDATE: So, ValleyWag *doesn't* think this idea is crazy (at least for the labels and artists). But the more I think about this the dumber it seems to me...

• If I'm buying this for myself, when wouldn't I just buy the CD instead of the plastic "trading card"? Isn't the CD inherently more collectible then a plastic gift card? It comes with whatever bitrate MP3 (or other codec) I want to rip it in, and already has all of the "extra" like album art and liner notes. Besides, I can sell it when I'm done with it.

• If I'm at Best Buy looking for a gift card for a friend, why wouldn't I just get them a Best Buy gift card that can be used for *any* CD not just one of the 37 albums they can redeem with this card? Or anything else in the store for that matter...

I sincerely hope I am missing something in this announcement, but I fear I am not.