Recently, I have encountered a large music purge. While in the process of finally using my mp3 player other than to record interviews, I decided to go through all of my discs and determine which ones to save. I found quite a few in the "find another home for these" pile after spinning them for the first time in years. It falls in line with my attitude about most of my material goods - if I don't use it, why keep it? Send it off to someone who can use the item. Sometimes it means eBay, sometimes a donation to my local Goodwill store. But for the music, I generally find someone else who might enjoy the CD.
In the course of the cleanup, I pondered, "Why buy music?" Now, before you assume that I am one of those who steals music, I assure you, that is not me. And it is true that my work with inReview translates to some free music. But for the most part, if I want music that I care to listen to, I have to buy it.
My deliberation brought me to my early days of music purchasing. For one, I love music. If I could listen 24/7, I think I'd be in heaven. So from an early age, I saved money to buy music. At that time I was a bit more choosy since my available funds were based on the occasional babysitting job or paper route. When money was short, which was most of the time, it was good to have older siblings from whom I could borrow music. Because, after all, variety is what I aimed for in music listening.
Variety. That's it! That is the reason I buy music. Think about it. Before I had access to the likes of RadioU and WBER online at work, and before I got satellite radio in my car and access to online playlists, I listened to "free radio" in order to obtain an assortment of music. And since radio does not equate well with variety, I gave my ear to a lot of CD's.
I had noticed, however, in recent months, when I run out to purchase some new music, it may sit unopened for a while before I put it at a higher priority in the listening chain. Why? Because my music diversification has been established beyond the 12 CD-changer in my car.
A considerable amount of music that I gave away I never really even liked that much, but obtained it at a bargain price to help meet the variety goal. Some music I simply grew out of as my ears and tastes matured. And I wondered how some of the music made it into my collection. But after seeing so much music purchased get handed over to someone else, I will once again be a bit more scrutinizing in my acquisitions.