As described by Patton Oswalt. Excellent read here.
This touches on something I've been thinking about lately, as sort of a New Year's Resolution (the concept of which is utter bullshit, but bear with me). We recently went through the great year-end pop culture holiday known as Listmas. Every publication puts out a list of their favourite whatever of the past year. So what inevitably ends up happening in December is that we experience a whole year's worth of stuff in one month.
For me, I'm exposed to more new music in December than in any other month, just because everywhere you go you're shown something you missed back in April or May that everyone else has been digging since then. This replaying of the entire year makes me a bit depressed about my music consumption for a couple reasons. One is that I feel like I missed out on so much great stuff. The other is that in the time I spend sifting through all the new music, I could be listening to music that's really great that I love and music that's really great that I already know I don't spend enough time with.
So for my New Year's Resolution, I'm going to make an effort to listen to less new music... there's a concept I never thought I'd be buying into... if only so I can take the time to really enjoy music that I already have in my collection.
One of the ways I might do this is to sign up for a service like emusic. I think that a service like that would cause me to be more selective with my music choices, and I'd be able to enjoy more music because I'm getting rid of all the fat. CDs are still a viable option to me. Though I loathe to pay $17.99 for a god damned plastic disc, the sound quality is far superior to what you can find on the web, and by giving myself a CD budget, I'll probably pick nothing but 'the best' music.
The library is a great way to get your hands on CDs you might never listen to, except that it may take you a few months to get stuff. For example, back during the Polaris Prize buzz in the summer, I put pretty much every album that I didn't have on the short list on hold. The copies finally came in, and I picked two of the albums up yesterday. You can get great stuff for personal use, but you have to be patient. That's the trade off.
Like most 'resolutions' this one also has a chance to evaporate a bit by the spring, and almost certainly in its entirely by next Listmas.
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