Music Junkie

I am a music junkie. I can't help myself. There is just so much good music out there and my tastes in music are so wide. I have to keep myself from thinking too much about all the music I am missing, otherwise it would make me crazy. My husband is always asking me how I know about all of this new music. I find out about it on Facebook. And NPR. And blogs. And random websites. I love reading people's "best albums of the year" lists. I love the music coverage from NPR. I love that I have friends who blog about music so I can learn more. I realize I am barely scratching the surface on the music that is out there.

And damn you iTunes! You make it so easy to have instant music satisfaction. Just a little click and suddenly I have a new album. Ok, do we still call them albums? What is the proper term for a new release, especially when you aren't buying a CD. Please tell me.

I don't seem to buy CDs anymore. I don't do a lot of shopping, so the only place I ever see them is in Starbucks. And I don't think I have the patience to buy a CD from Amazon.com, although now you can buy MP3s there, just like iTunes. Spending so much time working and playing on my computer and the internet, I can easily cruise the iTunes store. Every time I learn about a new song or artist that I like, or I remember an old album or artist that I loved and maybe owned once on record or cassette tape, but no longer have, I can pop into iTunes and listen to it. And usually buy it. 99 cents seems like such a small price to pay for the instant gratification. And $9.99 isn't too bad is it? Music crack. A music fix. Instant gratification. Oh, but it adds up, doesn't it? Just $9.99 doesn't seem like much, but $9.99 x 10 is a whole other thing. 

iTunes purchases over the past 2-3 months? Albums (in some cases more than one from an artist) from: Noah and the Whale. The Kinks. Fleet Foxes. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. Beach House. Klimek. Leftover Cuties. Mayer Hawthorne. Mumford & Sons. The National. Phantogram. Shawn Lee's PingPong Orchestra. The Tallest Man on Earth. This doesn't count individual songs that sometimes strike my fancy and that I buy. Bruno Mars. The Helio Sequence. I may not want your whole album, but 99 cents feels like such a deal to possess one of your songs.

But sometimes I buy these albums and then I am overwhelmed at all the new music I have to listen to. Added to my already existing enormous collection. Add in satellite radio and Pandora - the love of my life - and that is a whole lot of music to deal with.

Am I the only one who pays for my music? Am I dumb? Do you buy your music on iTunes? Other stores online? I know there are all of these sites out there where you can find free music, but I don't know about them, don't have time to research and find them and figure out which ones are trustworthy or even legal to use. Sometimes artists will post a song of theirs on a website that they are offering up for free download and I have been known to do that, but other than that it just seems too complicated. Do you use these sites? Has it been a good experience? Where do you find your music?