Ways To Listen To Music Online

One of the hobbies that I’ve seen repeatedly on resumes is of listening to music. Reading comes a distant second, followed by sport and so on forth.

But do we really listen?

Ironically, we had this discussion about Landmark Education at a pub with its overpriced beer, while trying to make sense of the conversation and doing my best to not cringe as a rookie band was making a complete hash of a cover of Rage against the Machine’s Degeneration-X.

In these moments, as a result of having too much to take in all at once, a sense of quiet desperation creeps in due to my self-imposed inability to cope with the changing times (OK, just switch to jazz, please) or the boredom of merely having to move on to a saner, unimaginative point of view, of course, in reference to the discussion that we were having in regards to ‘listening’.

One thing was for sure, after all the histrionics we witnessed that night, I wished someone had replicated the Columbine School massacre using forks and table knives, slowly and painfully, for about two hours in recompense for the precious downtime they took away my life or someone did a drive-by while they left the building. Just for that night, I wished I was a victim of ‘lead poisoning’ much like Beethoven, while composing the Eighth Symphony.

So, was I really listening, to the monologue or the ‘noise’?

Hardly, as the ongoing occurrence of these somehow unrelated events led me to believe that the increased consumption of alcohol was my only way out of this situation albeit running the risk of tuning out which is also referred to as a complete dissociation from reality, if only temporary, due to the lack of endearing topics, music and company.

Well, so what’s the objective of this explicit account?

Don’t get caught dead listening to the crap that flies around, that’s what! Be selective and picky, and you’ll understand what I mean shortly…

On the other hand, almost 40% of my life has been spent listening to music using a boom-box (or whatever that means… thanks to the bastardization of the English language by these so called nonconformists), a walkman and now, an iPod. The location, time and situation didn’t matter whether at work, traveling to work or back home, at home or on a date and so on and so forth. It’s obviously music that I love (yes, and it includes Rage against the Machine’s Degeneration-X as well) but if someone said that I could make money by listening to music, you’d find me in the Bahamas, sipping on my umpteenth beer, listening to the exotic sounds of falling coconut shells.

Alterhit, a music download community for upcoming indie bands & labels, has an option that allows you to listen to music on its site and earn money, by promoting the music on its site in placing artist tracks on your page. If visitors buy music through your site, they’ll be glad to share a flat 20% with you.

So, tune in (as opposed to the mindless yammering and the noise) and have a listen… and like I said, a growing dissociation from reality, sometimes, has its benefits… yes, even for the clinically insane.