[nobleach]

Same story. And I was at it a couple of years before Napster showed up and made it easy. Searching through ratio-ed FTP sites for the "Flavahood Sexual Healing Remix" of Keith Sweat's "Twisted" (cause that's the one they played on the radio and it was impossible to find anywhere) all while on dial-up, was a badge of honor! But I did buy a ton of music as well... which I promptly would pop into the CD-ROM drive on my linux box, and CDRip and LAME-encode for later usage. But, just like you, somewhere along the way, I didn't feel like it was worth the effort once services like Last.FM/Rdio/Spotify started showing up. $10 a month is little to ask. Sure there are times when I can't find a track or even an artist... but a few minutes later, I'm cruising along listening to something else.