Online Music

Online music retailers slashed prices this month to record lows. As the music industry watches in horror, physical CD sales tumble and digital sales fail to bridge the gap. Online music retailers are trying to fill the gap by an age-old technique: slashing prices. Millions of teens, including myself, download music illegally from the Internet. Since I've come to SMU and joined the PerunaNet network, I have not been able to download from any of the free online music programs I once used. Since my arrival in August, I have purchased over $50 in music and downloaded zero songs for free. This proves my point that all it takes is a little bit of security and government restriction and people will stop. I'm more than happy to pay 99 cents a song. If anything, it makes me appreciate my music all the better. I don't have to worry about viruses, the quality is excellent, and now prices are falling. The industry has put out reliable, affordable, customized programs designed to professionally provide you with an enormous variety of music. There shouldn't be a need to save money and put your computer at risk by searching online for a free song. Think before you download! You're hurting the music environment!

The News

Lately, I've had some time to catch up on my TV-shows and the broadcasting news. I typically enjoy watching the news. It allows me to feel a sense of accomplishment in the knowledge I gain by simply sitting on the couch and observing a series of topics and current events to discuss. However, over my Spring Break, watching the news only seemed to bother me. I felt anxiety, discomfort, shock and even depression after hearing some of the most horrific stories presented in a series that seemed to go from bad to worse. These stories included 2-year old girl victims of child-pornographers, drowning NFL football players lost at sea, crazy ex-husband homicide suicides and of course, the HORRIBLE economy. It seems that there is very little going on in the world right now. Rather than feeling aware of my surroundings, I am now disgusted with so many things about our society. Has the roll of the news changed? It's supposed to inform us. Now it's just depressing! There's no positivity. There's not any reinforcement on the good things that happen each and every day. As the feel-good stories seem to fade away, the crises and deadly black clouds over our heads seem to grow story by story. I encourage you to watch the news to see what I'm talking about. However, don't watch too long... you'll get upset.