And how! (Score 1)

Before I started using the ed2k network last April I had six gigabytes of music, mostly ripped from CDs I had bought as a teenager, of which I estimate that I listened to three gigabytes of it regularly. After using ed2k for ten months, I now have 84 gigabytes of music. I estimate that I listen to something like 20 to 30 gigabytes of it regularly, and I try to listen to at least one new artist, album, or work per week. (Since I work from home more often than not, I am fortunate to have plenty of time to familiarize myself with new music.)

The collection has gotten so large, in fact, that I've had to converted all ape and flac files to high-bitrate ogg-vorbis files using gstreamer to avoid running of disk space (recently I broke down and bought a larger drive and a DVD burner). If Debian ever packages the new mpc plugin (or if I find motivation to build the plugin myself), I'll save even more space. (The ogg files use a little less than half the space of the lossless codecs.)

The crux of the biscuit: yes, I've discovered all sorts of new musical interests by browsing the ed2k network.

Though I've had an off-handed interest in early and classical music for as long as I can remember, only thanks to ed2k have I been able to amass such a variety from which I can pick and choose, with which refine my taste. Neither streaming radio nor satellite radio can compare. Mix this rich digital library with Wikipedia and free web-based courses on introductory music theory and one has an interesting and educational way to spend one's evenings for a few months.

I've also acquired a taste for indigenous music from the so-called far reaches of the world. The gamelan music of Indonesia has been a particularly delightful discovery, as has the ancient music of China and Japan. I found a corpus of Islamic music from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, and more. While I'm not interested so much in the subject matter, the music is fantastic.

It may sound silly, but a suite of nature soundtracks I found (consisting of waves crashing, thunderstorms and rain, insects chirping, etc.) turned out to be quite soothing while falling asleep.

I also found a few movie soundtracks that I now consider indispensable, such as those for Waking Life, Akira, and Donnie Darko.

There are also entire discographies of modern popular and semi-popular artists, some of which I'd never heard and ended up loving, such as Simon & Garfunkel, Nick Drake, Frank Zappa, Nine Inch Nails, Tom Waits, and Leonard Cohen.

I <3 eMule. Perhaps soon it will work on Wine....

-Nick