When I hear a song that gives me goose bumps or has great melodic bliss caressing its every beat, my immediate thought is “I totally have to share this song with someone.”

When hearing people talk about their music it depresses me how mainstream music dominates. There is better music out there, but because of big commercial companies paying money to have their artists’ music played at all times, more talented non-mainstream artists aren’t noticed. I feel the injustice being committed and I am driven to share my music.

I find it difficult to describe just how a song goes along while giving it its due justice. What a listener needs is music, not a description.

For what seems like forever, people have been trying to share music.

Presently, blank compact disks (CDs) are the dominant medium for sharing music. Although CDs are the most popular, are they the most effective way to share music?

I know that when purchasing a CD, I don’t have high hopes, for it takes me a good five seconds into each song for me to decide I hate the CD. My methods of CD reviewing are unfair considering that the artist has probably spent several months on what I have blazed through in 30 seconds.

The problem with CDs is that it’s too convenient to skip the song you are on rather than examining the songs thoroughly.

This is not a problem with cassette tapes. Though not as popular, cassette tapes still hold the spirit of do-it-yourself music.

I know what you’re thinking. CASSETE TAPES!? WHAT IS THIS, LIKE, 1993!!!!?!? But hear me out.

Sure, with cassette tapes you can fast forward, but it’s less convenient and time consuming, so the person receiving the tape is more likely to get the full effect of the playlist.

Mixed tapes or just tapes in general are underrated and unpopular for no good reason. Tapes are everywhere and people are begging to get rid of their collection. Evidence of audio tapes is everywhere you look. I have not yet been to a goodwill that hasn’t had a couple of stacks of cassette players lying around.

When most teens get a car to drive, it is most likely not a souped-up Audi off the showroom floor. You are more likely to get a Chrysler Horizon out of your grandma’s garage. In this late 80s sub-compact car there is more likely to be a tape deck than a CD player.

There is more thought put behind a mixed tape rather than a burned CD. When constructing a burned CD, mp3’s are carelessly dragged into a thoughtless order and the CD is done within minutes.

When constructing a mixed tape, songs are actually recorded in real time directly to the cassette. When you give someone a mixed tape you are essentially saying I care enough about you to sit around and record each single track. Show someone you care about their lack of musical taste and make a mixed tape today.