Back when the record industry decided to start suing random people who downloaded illegally in 2003, my three year experiment of downloading for free ended, and I wept like a 40 year old woman who can't watch “Desperate Housewives” on Sunday nights. Well, not really, but I wasn’t happy…

The record industry told people that there would be a way to download these songs legally, and would give the artists royalties. At the time, I didn’t want to hear any of that because I had received many of the songs for free, and it exposed me to a lot of bands that stations like WRIF and 89X weren’t turning me on to. I swore I would never download a legal song, because I was so angry with the industry.

Within the past six months or so, my anger towards download has subsided, and I finally broke down a few weeks ago, and bought myself an IPod Nano 2GB. The little device is great, and with its slim profile, it makes it perfect for travel. But one disastrous problem has come up with the IPod and related downloaded systems: It’s called ITunes.

Hello, my name is Art, and I am addicted to ITunes. (This is everyone’s chance to say “Hi Art!”).

Do they even have a ITunes Anonymous class on Tuesday nights? Perhaps after the Gamblers or Sex Addicts Anonymous meetings… God knows I need it right now.

Every song is 99 cents, and even with free “podcasts”, I am racking up quite a bill since I bought the IPod. If I keep this up, I will be spending a whopping 232 dollars this month on ITunes. Somehow, I don’t see that happening, but if I don’t show any will power, I guess I COULD spend that much. I can see it already starting to levelling out, so the 232 dollar catastrophe can probably be avoided.

When I DO have free time, I am browsing through ITunes, to see what artists they have, and what songs I never downloaded legally (or illegally). Even when I am not online, I am adjusting my play list to make the best mix when I am working out. I mean, if I focused on getting dates as much as I did on ITunes, I would getting more women than Wilmer Valderamma (Yes, Fez from “That 70’s Show”).

99 Cents for a song isn’t that bad either. It’s not free, but it’s a lot cheaper than when you went to Harmony House as a kid and bought a single for 3 dollars. But as an adult, ITunes makes life convenient. I still have friends who download illegally, and tell me I am crazy to download from ITunes. But you know what; it would be just my luck I would be one of the ones being sued if I started downloading illegally again. So, I'm not going to risk it, and so, I'm fated to give ITunes a little chunk of my credit card every month.

I was out of town last week for work in Grand Rapids; and instead of watching TV, or trying to find something depraved to do; I sat in front of my laptop, downloading more songs from ITunes. I spend enough time in front of my laptop as it is; writing to all my Haters. But now with ITunes, I am spending even more time in front of this thing.

Like my parents said to me about certain things; this is a phase and it will pass. And yes, the ITunes phase will pass, but at what cost?

Damn, did I just quote my parents? All right, its time to end this article when that happens.

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