Going Greener with Your Music Can Save You Money

Green Saves Green 

Day 14

In addition to my serious book habit that I discuss here once in a while, I have a serious music habit. I'm not the only one in the house with this habit either. My husband and nine year old son have it, too, and my six year old only wants an iPod for Christmas (oh, and bakaguns and pokemon cards, but really he only wants an  iPod). 

A good portion of our disposable income around here goes towards music, but we download a lot of our music or buy used CD's. Both of these ways of getting new music save us money and are greener than buying new CD's. 

Downloading music is greener because you never end up with a physical item. It saves resources, it saves shipping, and it's usually cheaper to download an album than buy it on CD new. Plus, if there is only one song you want, you can purchase just the one song instead of the whole CD. 

Buying used CD's is greener because no new materials are used to make them.

However, I get a lot of music free, too. How? There are several sources online that I use to download free, legal music. 

• If you use iTunes, you probably already know that each Tuesday they offer two or three free downloads. It's hit or miss if they are songs you will actually like, but I always check them out (along with any other free downloads like tv shows, videos or books) each week.
• Amazon.com offers free music each Tuesday, also, and I usually find it to be more to my taste and there are usually 5 or 6 choices. Every once in a while, they'll offer an entire album. Actually, if you follow the link, you'll find over 400 free songs there right now. You can also sign up to receive a weekly e-mail that will let you know what there free songs of the week are.
• The XPN blog. There is an amazing member supported Philadelphia radio station, WXPN. Each week day they offer My Morning Download. You have to sift through the blog for each day's entry because they are in with all of the other blog entries. Go to 10/10/08's My Morning Download for a free Bob Dylan song.
  

And while you can't download music for free from this next place, it's so cool I need to mention it. Pandora.com creates a radio station based around an artist or song that you request. It's a free service, and it plays from your computer so if you're a little tired of your current music collection, but don't want to pay for new music, go to Pandora, input a fav song or artist, and let it create a playlist that it will play for you. It's also a great way to hear songs from your youth that you would be embarrassed to actually buy (Bay City Rollers radio anyone?).

For more on greening your music, check out my post on 10 Easy Ways to be More Sustainable with Your Music