My Legal Music Library

Joe Wilcox | June 11, 2004, 02:16 PM

OK. I'm clean--and it sure feels good.

For years, I insisted people wouldn't steal music if given the chance to buy the way they want. I mean, who wants to pay $15-$20 for a CD to get one song? What about sampling or searching? The original Napster delivered those opportunities and the instant gratification of downloading music. (By the way, JupiterResearch surveys show these are all top consumer priorities for online music stores.)

The opening of Apple's iTunes Music Store and subsequent operations from MusicMatch, Napster 2.0 and others put to test my long insistence about stealing music. I can't speak for all consumers--I leave that to JupiterResearch analysts David Card and Mark Mulligan--but I changed my habits.

In the pre-digital download days, I bought maybe two CDs a year for the last decade. Some years none. Since Apple's music store opened in April 2003, I bought 878 songs, of which 38 are album purchases. The ability to search and sample, discover new artists, has completely reinvigorated my music interests. Today's favorite playlist includes music from Coldplay, Engima, Hoobastank, Jet, Maroon 5, Jason Mraz, Liz Phair, Stereophonics, Smile Empty Soul, Snow Day, the Stills, Sugarcult, the Vines, Wilco and Zero 7, among many, many others.

During the last few months, I have methodically purged any music of "suspicious origin" from my computer, also chucking some burned CDs. I replaced about 250 songs with digital downloads or obtained new CDs. I had long ago burned my vast CD library, but had to buy additional albums to replace some music of suspicious origin. Digital download catalogs may be vast, but there are huge gaps--and I'm not talking the Beatles, folks. In the end, I managed to bring my music library to within 20 songs of its original size. (Anyone know where I can get a copy of John Miles' 1977 release "Stranger in the City?") Most of the missing songs are obscure and no longer available. Digital downloads would be a way putting these catalogs back into distribution. Hint. Hint.

As an analyst covering Microsoft, it's not really my place to make recommendations to record labels, artists and publishers about the digital download market, which JupiterResearch surveys show is nascent at best. But speaking as a consumer, my music buying is transformed. I spent more money on music in the last 14 months than the previous 14 years. Choice, flexibility and availability are the main reasons.

And there is no music of suspicious origin in my collection. I either possess the original CDs or bought digital downloads that are rights protected. That should be sweet music to artists and publishers.