buying music

with all the stuff we've been reading about piracy, downloads, p2p, this made me start thinking about my own music consumption habits. when I was younger, i was obsessed with collecting cds, for any birthday or christmas present I would ask people for CDs. Though I downloaded music, and would burn CDs from my friends or from the local public library (surprisingly good collection), I still ended up spending lots of money on buying CDs. I guess it was because when I was burning from others, that limited who I could listen to to artists other people had (Whom may not be the ones I'm interested in). With downloading, it was easiest to download who was the most popular. More obscure bands were difficult to find. Also, it may have been easy to download a few songs, but it was harder to find complete album using different P2P software. possible, but it took work. I also had some sort of code of ethics in what I would download or burn. For example, there were certain artists who I absolutely had to buy their album and not just have a burned copy. Movie soundtracks and other compilations I burned with no hesitance, because since they weren't albums and put together cohesively for artistic purposes

in college, with ethernet connections it became really easy to download lots of music, lots of albums of lots of good bands. My music collection sky rocketed. Every so often I would still buy a CD, usually from the same few artists who in middle school i banned myself from only having downloaded versions of their music. However, with that, I've been going to more concerts. I can afford it more now than in high school, but it's also because I've been introduced to so many more bands through being to download music from other pomona folks' computers. By my senior year, I thought that I would never buy a CD again. on one hand, there was so much free music available. on the other hand, though i still love music as much as ever, i've lost a little that drive to constantly find new bands and the newest music in favor of trying to know my current collection better. also, i listen to music digitally more (ipods, computers), and are rather bulky compared to their non physical counterparts. after 3 years of having to move out of dorms, and having to deal with the heavy piles of cds i have, i'm less inclined to add anymore to my material possessions. However, that was a lie. I don't know exactly how or why, but I've ended up buying 10 cds this semester. So much for the end of CDs.