There aren't many things that have "revolutionized" habits of mine. Obviously, the key ones in life--being able to drive, living away from home--those kinds of things happen all the time to everyone.

But I noticed last night, as I spent my $25 iTunes gift card Valentine's Day gift, that my music-spending habits have been totally revolutionized by having an iPod and iTunes in general.

Used to be that I'd be more than willing to take a trip to Best Buy and suck up whatever CD caught my eye that particular time. But now, I'm a ton more selective...for example, it took me about 10 minutes to decide if I really wanted to use my $25 on Audioslave's newest album (which came out months ago) and on the newest Nickelback CD (along with some other single songs I bought).

In the past, I would have run out the day the Audioslave CD released and bought it, regardless. And, I would not have bought the Nickelback CD at all, because I wouldn't have been able to preview (granted, 30 seconds per song) it, necessarily. After scanning through the previews, I thought it would be a great CD to have.

Prior to these two purchases, the last CD I bought was "Weird" Al's newest one, and then prior to that, I can't even remember. I've bought all singles and such, and I've been quite selective in what I actually purchase, even at 99 cents a pop.

Of course, iTunes has also allowed me to really expand my horizons as far as music goes...in the words of my little brother, "you listen to some crazy combinations of music." Now, by no means am I anywhere close to most people, but I couldn't ever imagine buying some of the music I've bought. It's really interesting.

Now, that too includes influences from Gina and my Dad, who both listen to US99, and I'd never really done that--now it's a preset on my car (not that I listen to the radio that much anyway) and have a decent cache of country music mixed in on my iPod. Also, I've had plenty of other influences...KM, to mention one, and a coworker that I had to go on a roadtrip and listen to his iPod, which was really full of eclectic stuff, let me tell you...some of which sucked, some of which was great.

So it's interesting, because this really has revolutionized my musical tastes and purchasing habits, quite a bit.

Have you seen similarities in you?