When I was in school, I saved every last dime I had to buy music. One day I was helping clean out my Uncle's garage and found a Metallica Single cassette tape (remember those). I played that tape nonstop for months until I had the $12 for the whole Kill 'Em All album. It wasn't long before I had every one of their albums. Soon later, I began collecting CD's of my other favorite bands. I joined up with Columbia House during one of their 12 cd's for $1 deal. I had two jobs in high school and spent every red cent on one of two things, drumsticks and CD's. These were the days before file sharing, streaming music, and easily obtained media. Without the purchasing power of Columbia House, I could never have afforded the music I was exposed to.

The impact that music had on my life in high school cannot be understated. Without it I would be a much different person. There are a lot of us that have this connection with music, so we are passionate about our favorite artsists and support them by going to shows and buying shirts & albums.

When mp3's and filesharing became all the rage, we all assumed that the price of digital music would be a fraction of the cost of an actual CD--but it isn't. The cost of entertainment is still inflated by the "distribution" costs created by the record labels. I see the solution as musicians retaining their production and distribution rights, cutting out the middle man. Utilizing these streaming services to promote select songs and offering complete albums or remixes through the artist's page only.