As fans, critics, and everyone in between take stock of the year in music, I'm starting to wonder how much of it I actually heard, or for that matter, own. It is old news that we are in a time of media over-saturation and that music is particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon. When I think back on 2007, I probably listened to less current music than ever before. It's trite and certainly not a valid excuse to say that I was paralyzed by the dizzying array of choices. With trustworthy blogs, websites, and friends to steer me towards new discoveries (Beirut), hidden gems (Boris), and the obvious choices I so often overlook (Arcade Fire), I'm still not sure why my music collection stagnated this past year. Then I went through my iTunes library and realized that I had increased the amount of music I "own" in 2007, by at least a couple hundred songs. But few of the songs amounted to albums; most were a collection of random singles, free downloads, or the supposed three or four best tracks off someone's full-length effort. And I put "own" in quotes because although music is more free and accessible than ever, it is also more disposable; it's easier to let go of. Thus, we've become dabblers. The songs that I have recently acquired don't really add up to anything more than a 10 day long mix tape with little thematic cohesion and only a shallow survey of the artists' work. I have shifted from collecting to compiling. Sometimes a free download or an album stream is the gateway to a love affair with a band. There have been times when ...