How an Ex-Audiofile Rediscovered Music
Years ago as a teen, I found myself mowing yards and making money only to sink it quickly in CD purchases. That was the 90s when CDs were the only way to go and $14 would seem like a bargain. Then the Internet happened.
In 1999, I arrived in high school and heard a few peers talking about a bountiful forrest lush with free music called Napster. I had dabbled in a bit of online file sharing, but when I obtained Napster, the world changed.
Everything
was
free.
As Napster, Aimster, Morpheus, Kazaa, etc rolled on, my CD purchases slowly faded to where by late college, I was buying just a couple albums a year. It was all free. The music industry made it hard to justify buying anything, so I didn’t. Yahoo Music, Napster Free, file sharing, and later YouTube made legitimate file streaming possible. I quit pirating music, but rarely bought an album.
After college, save for a few bands a year, I stopped listening to much music at all. My taste became soundtracks and sitting in silence more than hearing anthems. It was cheaper, relaxing, and I had YouTube. I bought stuff on occasion through iTunes and Amazonmp3, bought on a very rare occasion.
Then came a month ago. A friend of mine demanded that I test-drive Spotify, a European imported music subscription service. I immediately thought it’d be another lame DRM nightmare.
It wasn’t.
For $10 per month, it’s an all you can download buffet of insanity. Rare tracks and a hot community. Over the last month, I have begin to rediscover the joy of music. The prophets. The eery melodies. The worship. The hooks that make you scream in your car, knowing the car at the stoplight next to you has someone watching.
It’s good to have fun again.
