Is it really, really sad that in the first preview track of the Firefly soundtrack I listened to, I noticed that one of the instruments was missing in comparison with the televised version? Of course, in my defense, it was a pretty prominent instrument, but still. Geek! Unclean!

I’m so sick of Fox still treating Firefly like some redheaded bastard stepchild. Thousands of us have begged and pleaded for months, nay nears, for a Firefly soundtrack, and they don’t trust the fans enough for an actual CD release! Look at the DVD sales and tell me this soundtrack wouldn’t be one of its hottest sellers! They could be making a mint by embracing the show and taking advantage of a desperate fanbase, but instead, with a total lack of fanfare, they just grudgingly eke out a selection of tracks Greg Edmonson recorded years ago, and what they do release is choked with DRM so thick that Mac users can’t even play the songs with the current version! And anyone that can download it will have to burn it to CD and rip it back to their computer if they want to play it on an iPod or any other WMA-unfriendly device. And apparently the Fox store only takes credit cards with American addresses, effectively eliminating the international market. Do they want fans to be forced to resort to piracy? (Hey, just like our heroes!)

And as a final insult, “Hero of Canton” isn’t included. There’s no coming back from that. Of course, it’s possible that they coulde only include stuff Greg actually wrote, and he didn’t write “Hero of Canton”, or for that matter, River’s dance in “Safe”, which one would fully expect to be on a Firefly soundtrack.

Lots of fans have reported difficulty downloading it, but have had more success following these instructions. Personally, I’m going to wait a few days to see if Fox looks like it’s going to make any concessions to our demands. Feh. In the meantime, I’ll content myself with Sneaker98’s ripped-straight-from-the-DVDs complete Firefly score.

(P.S. Firefly soundtrack! EEEEEE. Ugh, the music from “Out of Gas” kills me dead. I love this show and I love this music. I can’t wait to hear these new tracks in their entirety!)