Even before we were proprietors of a blog, Dave and I were constantly looking for music – new music, old music, cheap music, free music. We have the musical metabolisms of hummingbirds, consuming constantly, sometimes to our own detriment. Speaking for myself, I know that in my quest to accumulate music, I can often miss a good song when I first get it. It sometimes takes weeks/months/years for me to discover something I’ve owned for a long time.
The folks at Amie Street aren’t making anything easier on me in that regard. Since being drawn in by the allure of a half price album through their ads on Hype Machine, I’ve spent $42.50. But with that $42.50, I’ve purchased the following:
1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
2. Au Revoir Simone – Still Night, Still Light
3. Au Revoir Simone – Reverse Migration
4. Au Revoir Simone – The Bird of Music
5. Au Revoir Simone – Verses of Comfort, Assurance & Salvation
6. Harlem Shakes – Technicolor Health
7. It Hugs Back – Inside Your Guitar
8. k-os – Yes! (Deluxe Edition)
9. Pelican – The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw
10. Jeremy Enigk – The Missing Link
11. The Black Keys – Chulahoma
In addition to those 11 albums, I purchased 34 songs to complete some albums, and I still have a balance of $21. (To be fair, the Au Revoir Simone was a package deal – if you purchased their new album, you got their other three for free.)
This type of purchasing on Amazon would have cost me about $130 altogether, and I’ve only spent $42 on Amie Street. In addition to offering excellent pre-pay deals (they match the amount you pre-pay over $25, but they are running a special right now where they match whatever you pre-pay from $5 and up), the community at Amie Street is consumer driven. If no one purchases a song/album, the music remains free or very cheap. (There are albums that sell for less than $1.) Popular albums generally cap at $8.98, and popular songs cap at 98 cents.
Finally, once you’re purchased a song, you have the ability to recommend it to other listeners. If the price of the song you’ve recommended increases, you receive a kickback to your account – keeping the music socially driven, and creating a sense of community on the site itself. (I have yet to try this, although I know I should.)
It’s nice to be a part of a site that is so clearly focused on word of mouth – the backbone of what good music always has been about anyway, and one that strikes a happy medium between artists and fans. While they don’t always have what I’m looking for, they’re fast becoming the first place I look for an album or song.
Please, go and check out Amie Street. Pre-pay $25 (or more!) and look around the site. Get some albums you were intending to but haven’t. Take a chance on an artist who has an album for less than $1. Find something you didn’t know you loved. Involve yourself in talking about what you already do love. You won’t regret it.
If you missed yesterday’s post, my writing cohort Dave and his wife had their first child yesterday – a girl named Abigail. Not having kids myself, I can’t speak to the life-changing experience that it is, but I’m sure that Dave will wax poetic when he gets a chance/finds the words. In the meantime, in honor of this momentous occasion, here are a couple of loosely related tunes to celebrate her arrival. (I do realize that the Jeremy Enigk song isn’t spelled the same way, and it’s not the right middle name, but it’s the only song I had with that name in it.)
After a weekend in NYC watching the Mets collect the 6th of their now 7 straight wins, and drinking plenty of 
