Inspired by a friend over the weekend, I compiled a new playlist on iTunes the other day of the songs that I’ve been listening to most often. I realized that primarily they are drawn from mix CDs that have been given to me by friends in the last month or so.

I love sharing music and having it shared with me. Christopher started using a Podcast type service not long ago in an attempt to find ways to share some of his favorites, both old and new, with a wider audience. It had it’s pros and cons and I confess that when I rebuilt my iTunes library I lost my subscription to it (hint hint).

There are lots of ways to file share but so far I haven’t found an easy method for sharing an entire disk with someone other than burning a cd the old fashioned way and handing it over. This is a lot easier with local friends than long distance folks (as proven by my continued inability to complete my CD project for my message board family).

Music is for sharing. It is storytelling, history preserving, community building, culture growing, consciousness evolving magic. And as the internet has opened up a world of information to anyone with access to it (a daily growing percentage of the population), the continued efforts to stymie the flow of music through digital rights management depress and frustrate me. Particularly when the best and most propigated online music tool is also the worst offender (and I realize this isn’t entirely Apple’s fault and that the industry forces their hand here).

I find it diffcult to understand how it is that nobody in the music industry has been able to create a successful business model that will allow them to make a profit without also crippling the cultural necessity and viral joy of sharing songs. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to architect a solution because I’m too busy burning CDs for people.

Anyway, that was digression. What I really wanted to do here is post my latest playlist and attribute the songs to the person who shared them. Almost all of them are available on iTunes or through the artist’s Website. And, I have e-mail and most of you know it.

In the Red: Tina Dico–BaconJ
Helicopter: The Feeling–Ellenator
Four Left Feet: The Ditty Bops–Ellenator
First Day of My Life: Bright Eyes–Ellenator
Making Pies: Patty Griffin–Ellenator
Your Ex Lover is Dead: Stars–Ellenator
Maps: Yeah Yeah Yeahs–Ellenator
If I: Piers Faccini–OSUJenn
Arms of a Woman: Amos Lee–OSUJenn
Sweet Mistakes: Ellis Paul–OSUJenn
Made Up Love Song #43: Guillemots–BaconJ
Stars and Boulevards: Augustana–Samantha
Sewn: The Feeling–BaconJ
Happy: Brandi Carlile–OSUJenn
If I Can’t Have You: Kubb–BaconJ
Kettle’s On: The Feeling–BaconJ
Fidelity: Regina Spektor–OSUJenn