Revival

I recently read that approximately 700,000 songs are downloaded illegally every five minutes. I hope I can say this with impunity, but I was once one of those downloaders, and what fun I had! I looked up just about every song I ever knew. Eventually laden with guilt and not wanting to bring shame to my family or my employer, I stopped, but for me, a big fine would have been worth all the pleasure I had.

Songs that I loved in my early years and thought I would never hear again were among the first searches, and how happy I was to find them. Soon I had a mix of a thousand or so in my music library, and I burned many a CD for not only myself but for everyone I knew. Who doesn't love music in some form! But it was educational, too, which I think is an important piece of the service that downloading provided. If I was curious about a certain singer, style, instrument or genre, I could find it, and felt that I was learning as I went along. For me it wasn't about downloading the most recent billboard hit, which I guess is what all the fuss was about.

A few years ago I came to the end of my downloading days, and in the car I now often listen to people opining, so music has become a lesser part of my life. I have missed it. Sorting through my old CDs and playing them the past couple of days has been like having an old friend to visit.