No worries, I'll take your U2 example and try it from my end (I don't listen to them so I can't decide on what album(s) specifically you are looking for). I'm going to be frank, it was a pain, but I did find zdigital (7digital outside of Australia) selling their albums without physical media. But getting there, I had to see that the U2 website/publisher website did not even advertise it. It was like the 5th option on duckduckgo after searching for
u2 digital download
I'm sure you would have better luck if you slide in the specific album that you were looking for.
Important to note is that you aren't googling for that artist or album, you're googling
artist album digital download
I do agree with you that mainstream artists and publishers are going down this route probably due to some deals with streaming services, but unfortunately that is the reality we live in now. Additional work will be required by the consumer to get what they want. If the publishers start completely stopping this at some point all I can say is that I have the disposable income to buy the products I want and I am going to get it. Whether the publishers sell it to me or not is their decision to make.
Bandcamp is good for indie artists and if you want to discover new artists. I've found quite a few diamonds in the rough on there. A surprising amount of metal / punk artists sell via Bandcamp if you're into that.
How is 'just Google it" not a valid option? This is literally how you can find 99% of all problems about the internet especially for finding where to legally buy digital products within the first few websites. You know what is good for business when you're trying to sell a product? Making sure its one of the first few, if not the first choice the customer gets when looking at the default search engine.
Moving on from that I'm guessing getting in contact with the artist is not an option? Y'know the other 2 points?
I always try to buy my music first, digital only though. I don't have space for CDs or the like. If the option is not available (not common), the tricorn goes on. And normally I would go through any loophole I can find to get it legally. But damn, the Japanese really don't like doing business with foreigners.
Just a heads up to everyone, quitting Spotify and buying / "procuring" your own music and playing it via a music player makes reading this quite cathartic. Do it for the moral superiority and self esteem boost for no effort you come to the internet for anyways.
Looks like Hasbro / Wizards (is there a distinction?) trying to control the narrative while Larian has been straight taking a dump on them since almost the initial release of the game.
Would you count NG+ as replayability? I know for Nier Automata and Armored Core 6, it's basically part of the story and you haven't finished until you've unlocked all of the main paths. There is enough new stuff each playthrough for it to be unique though.
I've come to a point where I don't even pirate AAA, just buy indie or anything made by Fromsoft and any team that still presents any semblance of passion for their work.
Larian really knocked it out of the park having 3 studios around the globe so they can still have a 24hr workflow without pushing everyone to do overtime. I really want to know what their handover procedures are.
I raise you SHARP