I was reading slashdot and found an interesting “ASK Slashdot Question” the question was Has P2P influenced your music tastes. I got to thinking about this, and was stunned at my own response. I have to answer that is has changed my music tastes.
I own, or did own a tone of cd’s. Once I got hooked on MP3 I converted my CD’s into mp3’s. And sold them off at some garage sales. But once I started finding music on the P2P networks I realized that I was looking for a whole new type of music. I was no longer searching for the same music I heard on the radio, but looking for different music that fit my tastes.
I asked myself why that was. I realized that when I purchased a CD I was very tied to the actual transaction. I did not want to spend my hard earned money on something that I did not know anything about. So I stuck to purchasing main stream music. That whole transaction thing where I actually got an item (cd) when I paid money was also hard to handle. I knew that I could go home and probably get 80% of the cd off some P2P site. From this logic I noticed that my taste in music had changed. I started searching for more acoustic and live music from the bands that I liked. I would find individual songs and other mashups or concerts that were just as fun. Over time I was no longer looking at main stream music but was getting other artists who may have done cover songs that I knew.
Now, move forward to today. I no longer use P2P, that is a personal choice. I do not like the feeling that what I am doing is stealing. But, I do use music services (itunes, napster, and real) to purchase single songs. I find this an easy and less expensive process than purchasing a full cd. But as I look at the type of music I am purchasing it has changed. And I do think a lot of that change can be attributed to P2P. If it were not for the ease of finding songs and music, I would have never discovered anything other than what was on the radio. So thank you P2P for opening my eyes.
P.S. I also have realized that when I do hear an artist or song that I like, I am more apt to purchase that song from an online service rather than just download.