It took a bunch'o years of buying music in it's various media forms for me to realize it, but I can see now that finding, collecting and listening to new music is the true and most passionate hobby in my life.

Beginning over 15 years ago or so I was immersed with the CD club game to join, load up on the "free" CD's, quit and then start the process all over again to build my digital collection to replace classic and less convenient vinyl. This low-cost method of feeding my habit coincided nicely with the economic challenges of starting a family and establishing our home, so I wound up focusing mainly on back-catalog stuff. I was trying to keep up with new stuff too, but as many of you know from the same effort the pickings were slim at those clubs. Around '00 the clubs ran out of gas and I realized I didn't know squat about what was new and interesting. I'm really not sure which of those two factors came first.

I've always dedicated time to music, and aided with the new tools of the internet and some good sites to learn about what music to look for next (like this place), I have regained a sense of what's new, what I want, and what s*cks. I've not only caught up with what's new, but I've been able to go back and mine those past artists that I can only wish I had discovered way back when. I would have loved to share some of those older tunes with the gang of people I spent countless hours with sitting around our systems and searching all the nooks and crannies of a vinyl album. So for me new music has always meant new music to me.

So I use the "sink or swim" approach to keep my hobby alive and don't see myself ever declaring my collection complete. I'd hate to lose the momentum I've dedicated into this and hate even more to think I could conclude that new music isn't as good as the "old days". I use it as an ego boost to convince myself I'm not as old as I really am,\ and also for freaking my kid's friends out when I can tell them a thing or two about what they may want to check out. Actually, they probably think I'm just weird, like most of my long time friends that have long ago relegated music to background noise from a near-stagnant radio station.

Thx