Your Music Library Should Say Something About You!

If you have a computer at work or school that runs iTunes, chances are you’ve loaded some music onto it. And if that computer is connected to a local area network (LAN), then you most likely have also shared music across computers. Music sharing is a handy feature that iTunes has had since version 4, and it allows everyone who wishes to share their music across a network to do so as well as access other peoples’ music libraries that are shared. You can listen to shared music but can’t copy it, lest Apple be sued for facilitating copyright infringement or something like that. And in a world where our music libraries typically span several gigabytes, what you choose to include in your music selection can say a lot about you.

It’s a fun game you can play in your dorm; trying to tell what people are like based on their music tastes. As you browse through a shared library you note certain bands or musical genres and make personality judgements based on them.

“Hmm, this girl likes a lot of indie pop. She probably dresses a certain indie pop way and claims to be independent.” Or, “Look at all of the speed metal that this guy has. I bet he owns that motorcycle out front and goes paintballing on the weekends!”

If you can be judged by the music you listen to, it only makes sense that having more music - adding more bands to your library - can only add more facets to who you are as a person. Or so one would think.

But is this true? I don’t think it is, and I’ll tell you why. Having an extensive record collection used to say something about you back when it cost you something. When you had to buy each and every CD you owned, buying a CD to enhance your perceived image meant giving up some money - and you assumed that you gained some value from that purchase. If I was going to buy a CD like Back in Black, chances are that I either enjoyed AC/DC immensely or wanted to be known as a raucous party guy who loved to have fun. Probably both, actually. But, now, when music can be downloaded for free, does having an extensive library mean as much, or even anything at all? If I downloaded Back in Black, does that mean I have the same values as someone who bought the disc? I don’t think it does. Granted, there are many reasons for owning a particular piece of music, but just owning it does say something about you. Take a look at the picture below, a screenshot of the results, ordered by number of people who want them, of the word “discography” typed into The Pirate Bay, a popular destination for illegal music swapping.

(click to enlarge)

The total amount of music on this first page alone totals to roughly 92.448GB (yes, I checked), or about 3.08GB per artist. I have a mere 19.5GB of music on my laptop, and yet that already totals to 9.6 days of music. Imagine how long 92GB would take to listen to! And that’s just 30 artists! My music library includes 257!

The point is that when anybody can get that much music for free, having an extensive music library that takes someone a full minute or so to scroll through doesn’t really say much about you other than you like to pirate music. There’s no set pattern of tastes; no established ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’ of artists. Based on that screenshot, what type of music would you recommend to that user? Certainly no techno, classical, or easy listening. And this guy has classic acts like The Doors, The Beatles, ZZ Top, and Bob Marley, yet still listens to Metallica, P.O.D, RATM, Slipknot, Tool and Papa Roach? Really? And Kelly Clarkson?? What is that!? A guilty pleasure? Should I recommend Christina Aguilera (whose last name my spellcheck recommends I change to “Uglier”) based on that taste? And I like both Depeche Mode and Rush. Do I try to find common ground based on these bands, or did the guy download them just for looks as well? Because when music becomes free, it becomes really hard to tell what someone likes and dislikes. They might just have a few bands so they can say, “Yeah, I listen to them too.” I have totally been guilty of this.

In the past, having a huge record collection meant, more often than not, that you really cared about music and spent a lot of time listening to what you bought. Now it just means you know where to find The Pirate Bay and how to run a torrent client.

So now it seems the opposite is true. Being able to pick and choose what you listen to, to weed out the stuff that you downloaded “just for looks”, helps you present a cohesive music library that actually says something about what you like and don’t like. Having a lot of music actually says less about you.

So what do yo think? Should people take the time to go through their iTunes and eliminate music that they don’t listen to? Or is it just more fun to have a huge library at your disposal?





_DZ