Noninvasive advertising or $5 a month
I’ve recently concluded a chapter of my life where I really didn’t listen to music unless someone else had it playing. This started at the end of graduate school. Simply put, my professors weren’t around to make me listen to stuff. My wife doesn’t really listen to music on her own either, so we just didn’t listen to music for a long time. Although, I suppose there were the 10-20 artists that we were already familiar with to whom we listened in the car.
For a long time my brother was pushing me to check out Rdio and to make sure that my own music got on there. So I checked it out but it didn’t stick with me. After listening to a few classical things in a similar genre to my previous work I just lost interest. Looking back I realize that I was just stuck in a mindset that listening to music was supposed to be an active process of consuming ideas. The artist has something to say, so I should listen attentively and not do anything until the music is over. But I just don’t have time for that.
A year or so has passed and recently I’ve tried listening to music again. Turns out I was listening to the wrong stuff. I like classical music, but it’s really not my favorite. My favorite is a massive variety: metal to jazz, electronica to rock, dub step to folk. I just love music and just because I don’t have time to actively engage it all the time doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have it on!
Don’t limit your listening. Listen to everything; even stuff you don’t think that you’re going to like. I highly recommend using Rdio to help you do this.