New Toys part I

The other day I went out and spent money on music for the first time in about 4 years. I did so partly because LimeWire just got sued (presumably by the RIAA, but I haven't checked), but also just because I felt like it. Looking at the receipt you'd have thought I was a teenager. It was all Dashboard Confessional/Interpol/Keane/Angels & Airwaves AKA Blink182 redux. I meant to pick up the 2001 Jimme Eat World too, but I forgot. I so rarely spend money on frivolous sundries, I felt like dancing all the way home with the new tunes. Whee!

To decide what music is actually worth buying, I've been making use of the fine Music player over at Pandora.com. These are the folks behind something called the Music Genome Project. They've been indexing thousands of titles by characteristics such as major or minor tonality, instruments featured, lots of things really. They have a FAQ for the curious. You should check it out.

After I'm bored with my new music, I intend to swap these CDs out via the musical yard sale at Lala.com. Lala, for those who have never heard of it, is a lot like Netflix except that you end up owning the disc. You create a list of CDs you'd like to receive. You also create a list of CDs you have (and are willing to get rid of). For the paltry sum of One Dollar + some nominal shipping charge, you buy new music. In order to get the discs on your WANT list, you have to ship out CDs from your HAVE list.

For less than than the cost of a crappy bottle of Two Buck Chuck, I'm completely ready to play musical chairs with my CDs. Someone has to want my old Don Henley albums.