Living in EY, we don’t get albums as quickly as you do in the states and they often cost a bit more. MP3 version on Mostly Music are always more affordable and many albums are even cheaper on Amazon.com. Music no longer retails for $17 an album in the secular world, and I am not in a position to be spending 70-90 shekel on an album.
This doesn’t mean I pirate, it simply means that I’ve stopped buying new music from the stores until the prices come back down. I will still buy from artists directly, such as at concerts. In EY, most artists sell their albums at significant discounts at concerts.