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Music for the Money Challenged.

Ever since I was a kid, I would save my allowance to buy music. My first album was a 45′ of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Lately, my music budget hasn’t been much, what the way the economy is going, who has a ‘music budget?’ And its a bit of a disappointment to an avid music lover like myself, because music is so much more accessible than it was even ten years ago. Luckily, there are some outlets for the money challenged, other than illegal downloads, itunes, and amazon. Though I do have to say that, amazon has a motherload of music – sometimes you can even purchase cds that are out of print! True they may be used, but I haven’t had an issue yet. I like Amazon over itunes for the ability to shop around a bit.. or if you just want mp3′s you can do that as well. Also its usually cheaper to buy the mp3 version of an album and you save by not having that pesky shipping charge.

While your up on Amazon, I do suggest checking out St. Vincent’s, Actor. St. Vincent is the moniker for singer Annie Clark. She was a member of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens’ touring band. Actor is well worth coughing up the dough for. Apparently, she had another album prior, but its not getting the street cred that Actor is getting. Its somewhere between pop and rock. Some songs are good for sitting back and chilling out, while others I want to bounce around to. She’s currently doing a few tour dates with Andrew Bird, which is pretty sweet.

Another place to check out some some rocking talent is Cashmusic.org. I may be a bit bias in my opinion as it was started by singer, Kristin Hersh who is one of my favorite musicians. She also, happens to be from my home state, Rhode Island. What’s really cool about this site, is you choose how much you wish to pay for the music you download! Kristin Hersh has been uploading a song a month and thus far there has been four. Her entire last album, Speedbath, was available by download, true it took awhile as it was a song a month and then there were a few months where there was nothing… but it was well worth the wait. There’s also been quite a few artists getting in on Cashmusic such as, Deerhoof, Xiu-Xiu, Donita Sparks (ex-L7 singer) and Kristin Hersh’s band, 50FootWave. If you like punk, you’ll enjoy 50FootWave. You can preview their album, Power + Light as a streaming audio.

Another cool site for the latest music you haven’t even heard of yet, is Stereogum (its how I heard about St. Vincent.) If you sign up for their weekly newsletter you’ll get an MP3 every Wednesday delivered to your email. Right now, Stereogum is proclaiming, with good reason, that the band Blue Roses is “the band to watch.” Not to be confused with Hello, Blue Roses like I initially did, Blue Roses is the performing name of Yorkshire singer-songwriter Laura Groves. Her music is so dreamy and beautiful I know exactly why there is such a buzz over at Stereogum about her music! You can also download two songs from her on their site and there’s some video clips as well.

Another way of getting music cheap is what my friends and I do: we make cd’s to exchange with each other – much in the same way people used to make each other mixed tapes back in the 80′s. Everyone I know has itunes – I lack an ipod, but do love making playlists for myself or my friends. Its a fun way to check out music so your friends can get in on your geek out action of that obscure band that only you have heard of. So now there’s no need to bitch and moan over your lack of money and new music anymore!