Radio Sweethearts

My birthday is in two weeks. I’ll be 25 years old. At this point, there aren’t very many things that make me feel old. On the Media found a way, though. In this week’s all-music episode, the first segment points out that Napster started 10 years ago.

I remember using my limited computer time at my dad’s house to pull as many songs from Napster as possible, then burning them to CDs that are still in my old desk at my mom’s house. Things have come a long way since 1999, but people still don’t want to pay for something that they can get so easily for free and record labels still don’t know what to do about it.

In this week’s story about how music is charted, Mark Phillips points out that there’s been an upswing in the purchase of records  by middle-aged people. It seems like he’s trying to say that only said middle-aged people are still buying physical CDs. That’s not the case – I think those charts just measure what CDs are currently for sale at the Starbuck’s register.

I pay for music. Matthew and I both have subscriptions to eMusic, an awesome (and affordable) mp3 subscription service. Currently, we have about 450 vinyl records between us (a number that will likely continue to rise, especially after we get better speakers). We go to shows. But sometimes, I pull a track or two from hypemachine to test out a new band.Usually, if the band is good, I buy the record.

This week’s show also tackles a question that’s been on my mind for the last year: how exactly has GirlTalk not gotten sued yet?

This week’s On the Media is a departure from the show’s normal format. It’s hosted by Rick Carr, who does a pretty decent job until the sign off. Where Bob sounds all adorable and lovesick while sighing Brooke’s editing credit, Rick Carr just comes off as creepy. Or mocking. Or like he’s got Bob shoved into a locker somewhere.

This recap was written by Kerry, who’s back to her normal posting duties after two weeks of work travel. It was edited, sort of, by Matthew, who provided lots of colorful interjections while the podcast was on.