Can I Go a Year Without Buying New Music?

On Feb. 5, as I prepared to take my wife out on a rare night out, I made a “date mix” CD. It included nine new songs purchased from iTunes, at the standard .99 cents each. Although the selections were a little morose for the occasion (the Fleet Foxes – maybe not the ideal mood-setter), it was a lovely evening. But later my wife reminded me that we were trying to cut back on household expenses.

She knew of my addiction to iTunes: Between February and August 2008, when I was supposed to be hard at work on my grad-school thesis project, I bought hundreds of songs, most of them impulse buys that turned out to be duds. I decided to quit my habit cold turkey.

Five months into my self-imposed one-year moratorium, I’m going strong. Though Tuesday was the hardest day yet, because the new Wilco album, Wilco (The Album) came out. I want this album. Badly. But the key to bringing home finances under control is to decide which small luxuries one can do without, because they do add up fast.

With the exception of Tuesday, my five months without new music hasn’t been that difficult. Fortunately, there are several websites that help make the sacrifice easier. My favorite is NPR Music because it streams new albums in their entirety. That’s how I heard the new Wilco, as well as Moby’s terrific new record. The site also has an eclectic “song of the day” RSS feed and a Twitter feed highlighting live “desk” concerts and interviews.

MySpace Music remains a standard for discovery. YouTube is addictive, but there’s a lot of clutter to plow through. IMEEM also lets you preview songs for free, but it requires registration, and often doesn’t include the latest releases. Two sites you could spend hours on are Last.fm and Pandora, whose ingenious software recommends artists you may like based on the ones you already like. Type in “The Decemberists,” for example, in Last.fm and you can click on something called “Decemberists Radio,” which lets you listen to other artists.

My standby is the library, and I’ve made some great discoveries there: How did I ever survive without Big Star and Gram Parsons? I’ve checked out CDs for my daughter, too, although I look forward to the day when she’s past her obsession with the unending “If I Only Had a Brain” from The Wizard of Oz.

I think I can make it a year. But if anyone wants to buy me a copy of the new Wilco and send it to me, I’d be very grateful.

Landon Hall – A freelance writer in Silicon Valley, Landon was a reporter, sports writer and editor at The Associated Press in Portland and New York City from 1997-2006.

Tagged as: budgeting, home finances, household expenses, impulse buys, library, new music, purchases, radio, small luxuries

Landon Hall