Turn (on) the radio (sometimes)

Two nights ago, the most amazing thing happened. I was driving my two friends to the Caltrain station here in Mountain View, and given that I had left my iPod on our dining table, I decided to flip on the radio, and tuned to my second-most favorite station to hate, KMEL 106.1 (the top spot is reserved for that oh-so-reprehensible Wild 94.9).

The song that was playing was one that I hadn't heard, and seemed more well-suited to The Quiet Storm or KBLX, the jazz/R&B station here in the Bay Area. But then, the song switched to the next one. My volume was turned down a bit, but I could hear something so distinct that I started to lean forward.

Were those 9th Wonder drums?

Was that a mouse-ified sample looping?

Was that ... MURS?!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. It was. One of my favorite emcees was getting radio play on the second-most commercially garbage radio station in the greater metropolitan area.

Yes, it was around 10:30 p.m. at night, so not really the highest of traffic times for this station.

But it gave me hope for the future. If Murs can get spins at 10:30 p.m., maybe soon, that will be 9:30 p.m. Then another hour. Then drive-time. Then noontime. Then on Big Boy's nationally-syndicated morning show.

Then, every time I turn on 106.1, I'll be hearing Murs' voice. But not always on his songs. It will be his songs, and some guest spots. So many guest spots. Every time I hear the radio I hear a Murs guest spot. Then station IDs by Murs. Then commercials by Murs.

Then I will grow to despise Murs, just simply for his radio-based omnipresence. You might ask, where did D Lip come up with such a progression of events?

Well, minus the whole "being one of my favorite emcees," this goes for Lil Wayne. Seriously. Try this. Get in your car and turn on the radio to your local hip-hop station. Count the number of Lil Wayne songs or appearances you hear. Then, arrive at your destination, do your business, get back into your car and tune to the same station. Then, repeat the first steps again. I will be surprised if you hear Lil Wayne less than three times on your trip.

I rode down to the laundromat, just two minutes away, to get quarters, and I heard him on a T-Pain track and a Mya(?) track. Terrifying, I know.

Something tells me this won't be happening to Murs, now that I think about it.

Paid in full

At the moment, I have 13,050 songs on my iPod. I have several albums waiting on my table to be copied into my system.

Yeah, I know.

I've maybe listened to 10 percent of those songs. That's probably a liberal estimate, but it gives you an idea of how massive the amounts of music I have downloaded over the years. I credit most of the collection to my fellow Bruins at UCLA, where I used a nifty (and now defunct) program called MyTunes Redux to download hundreds upon thousands of songs from people on my local dorm network, all at speeds you wish you could get from your Internet provider (me especially, since Google's free WiFi, while free, leaves much bandwidth to be desired).

But ever since I moved out of De Neve Plaza and into apartments, where there is little to no shared connectivity to any network, immediate access to other iTunes accounts has been lost. Not to mention that, once everyone upgraded to iTunes 7 and higher, the ability for MyTunes Redux to download from other clients was blocked by some update Apple put into the new version.

So I was stuck. At this point, I had a few options. I could a) start downloading off of sites like LimeWire, Kazaa, etc., b) start using torrent downloads, or c) start actually buying my music.

The third of these options certainly did not seem appetizing at first. I mean, to get all the music I did get at UCLA, it would have taken quite a few dollars. Serious cash, which I was not really willing to spend.

But my Weltenschaung changed upon my first visit to Amoeba Records in Los Angeles. It is at this Mecca of record stores that I discovered the religion of used music. Perusing discount bins got me some of the best music I own. I would find rarities, nestled between way too many copies of Jibbs and Hush, waiting for a hip-hop head to snatch it up and enjoy its greatness. Nothing beats the feeling of knowing you will listen to an album for the rest of your life, and you only spent $2 on it (yes, "The Magnificent" from DJ Jazzy Jeff is that good).

Ever since that moment of track transcendence, I have sworn off illegal downloads. Now, there are certainly other means of acquiring music I use that are in legally gray areas (such as the legality of copying music from CDs legally checked out of libraries - one of the best methods for acquiring popular [and really random] music). But now I buy, and more and more, I have been buying new over used, at least for more of the music that is newly released.

So what does this new habit do to my stacks? Well, this year has been a pretty good year for music, and it has brought my total to $447.78 (yes, I keep a running Excel spreadsheet with this information). Editor's Note: This total deserves an "and counting" at the end, since I've yet to buy the new Q-Tip, along with a few other gems. Seems kinda high? For the amount of music that has been added to my library, it was very well spent.

I pride myself on maintaining a comprehensive and respectable music collection. Now I can do it with a little more confidence that I am supporting those artists who make my library so great.