Cash Well Spent

I recently purchased two CDs through iTunes; Maroon 5’s new cut and John Legend’s magnificent piece of latest artistry. I went ahead and purchased the entire albums… not necessarily a standard practice of iTuners but… Despite popular trends, I aim to resist simply purchasing songs I like in lieu of entire albums for a multitude of reasons: It is my firm belief that popular singles, while sometimes rather tasty, do not paint the entire picture (excuse the tired cliché analogy) of the sound or ideas the artist(s) is bringing to the table. When an artist births a new “set” of songs, they have the whole package in mind – if you are willing, they will take you for a walk in a lyrical and musical landscape that summarizes their recent experiences, personality, opinions, passions, and intimate feelings. No song is just randomly generated; someone, somewhere wrote it out of a moment of inspiration and though it may not be catchy in the mainstream arena, it might be the song that makes me rethink something, anything I take for granted.

My second reason is the economics of it (stemming from the business major in me): often, you can get MORE than 10 songs for $9.99 but you have to pay $.99 for a single track… pause…arithmatize… By buying all the tracks, I pay LESS than $.99 per song – sometimes as low as $.80…so why not get the full package?

Thirdly, I like to think I’m giving a little something back to the artist by throwing them a bone for the “filler” tracks that may never reach platinum status. While there are some non-popular tracks that I’ll find good, there are others that do nothing but take up space on my hard drive, occupy a number in the track list, and waste energy in my batteries… With that said, even the most un-enjoyable filler tracks leave something to be learned from a musical and artistic standpoint. Either way, 1/13^th of $9.99 is a small price to pay for the experience gained and the lessons learned from hearing ALL the latest, greatest work brought forth by our artists of choice.