In Defense of the MP3

In January I posted my opinion of the compact disc. Instead of linking to it, I will just say the gist of it was that I don't really feel like I own music unless I can actually touch it. I still feel that way for the most part, but...
There is one condition that actually makes me feel like I own the music without actually owning a PHYSICAL copy: some bands have begun to sell their albums in MP3 form, direct from their websites. I think this is great. It cuts out the middleman, i.e., the distributor, and in some cases, the label. This means that the creator of the music can actually make money off the music. As awesome as I find this, I still feel an intangibility that I do not enjoy...unless the band releases a down-loadable version of the album booklet along with the MP3 files. This is easy for the band to do, but it goes a long way. I recently bought Portugal, The Man's excellent new album, American Ghetto, direct from their website. I paid less than ten dollars for it, and the band included a digital-version of the CD booklet in the download. I put the booklet onto my picture-holding MP3 player, and now when I listen to the album, I can click through my player, look at the song lyrics, and view the artwork the band intended to visually represent the album. Sure, I can't flip through the pages and smell them, but I guess a few trees got saved, and instead of losing shelf space, I am losing a negligible amount of drive space.
So there, I am not a technophobic-troglodyte.
BONUS: With the money the band makes from selling their album directly, they can easily pay the producer, graphic designer, photographer, etc. No label involved. VIVA LA REVOLUTION! Or something...