Good Bye, CDs ... Hello MP3s

Once upon a time, like, 10 years ago, I swore I would never buy an MP3 download because I would miss the covers. I really enjoyed opening a CD and pulling out the cover, going through each page inside one at a time, reading line for line, and looking at all the photos. Plus, I didn't think I would be the kind of person to buy one song at a time. I liked getting "the whole CD." Even for my iPod, I used all the old music I had (when you have 450 CDs, you have a lot to choose from!).

Well, then the recession happened, and buying CDs became less of a priority. So one day, after many, many months of not buying any of the new music I wanted, I decided, well, I'll just download that one song I really, really want. So I did. It took about 1 minute and there it was -- new music on my computer! It happened so fast, and it was easy, and so cheap! Just ninety-nine cents!

So then I went, oh, I get it. I get this! A month later, I bought another song, and then another, and you can see where this is going. It's been about 5 years and now, of course, all I buy is MP3s.

Not only that, but MP3s are so easy on the budget. Even when I can't afford to go shopping for new clothes "this month," I can still afford a new song. What's a dollar? And what a lot of great enjoyment I get for that single dollar.

The interesting thing is, I'm not just buying new music. I'm also buying old music. That's one of the great beauties of MP3s. You can get any genre, any decade. Over Christmas, I was tired of the really old Christmas music we had and I was dying for a really good version of O Holy Night, so I went to Amazon.com and in about 30 seconds I bought Celene Dion's version and within a minute I was blasting it from my home office speakers. I do believe MP3s have spoiled me!

And now Amazon has the cloud, so I can save all my music to the cloud and if my computer breaks or I lose my iPod, wallah! just go up to the cloud and redownload it. If only all of life were that easy.

Now, not only do I not miss the covers of my CDs, but I look at my CDs as taking up space. I have no interest in buying a whole CD anymore.In fact, I'm thinking about converting the big bookcase of CDs that is just taking up unnecessary space to one (or two or three) of those black zipper cases with the sleeves inside. How easy to store, and less to move!

I wonder if, 10 years from now, a new technology will come along and I'll be saying, never! I'll never give up my MP3s! Only time will tell. 

Please check out my novel, In Fashion's Web on Amazon.