How Much Is Music Worth?

You’re sitting in front of your computer on just another average day. For reasons not fully realized, a song pops into you head—one that you haven’t heard, or even thought of, in a very long time. Before long, your mind’s shuffling through the tracks of the entire album.

For the love of music

It’s one you had on a cassette tape as a teenager (you played it so much, eventually the audio was no longer audible), or on CD as a college student (which disappeared after a party, which you replaced, only to disappear a few weeks later after the next party). Now here you are, in the middle of the night/morning, as part of your brain reminds you that the memory of sound and song is no match for sound and song, wishing it were part of your 12,000-song digital music library.

So you sign on to iTunes, a messiah to every habitual music-loving consumer of music. You type the name of the album and the band in the search. Wholly unexpected, the returns disappoint: 18 albums by the band; the one you’re looking for is missing. Unbelievable. You search again; nothing. 

So you log on to Amazon, a savior to those who can’t find the instantaneous download on iTunes, or anywhere else. You type the name of the album and the band into the search. No MP3s, only “8 used & new available from $49.99″…

That’s a pretty good chuck of cash for a CD, you think. But you take the next step anyway: You click to see what’s available from these sellers, finding the “cheapest” album in “like new” condition.

Add to cart…

Proceed to checkout…

PURCHASE!