I remember the situation well. There was this Paul Van Dyk song, "White Lies" stuck in my head. It seemed as though every time I'd walk to the train station no other song would do. And it was killing me. I knew I was totally overplaying the song in my head, but without a replacement I was powerless. Eventually, I forced myself to use the "Random Play All" setting.

And there it came. Out of nowhere, a great song. A happy song. A song with energy, the rare kind of song that you could listen to one time and like. I looked at the name on my mp3 player. "Three bags full," by Nu: Tone. It was perfect. I even liked the name. Unpronounceable, impossible to use on some file system types. It was modern and satisfying.

Listening to more of his album, Brave Nu World, I made a startling discovery. Back before I'd ever even moved to Japan, I had a song stuck in my head. The name of the song was definitely "Seven Years," but I could not locate the artist for the life of me. ATB had a "Seven Years" CD and track, but it wasn't the same song. Well Nu: Tone's Seven Years was that long lost track. Two points for Nu: Tone.

Then I was leafing through a flier from the Saloon/Unit, and this caught my eye.

Zomg! Nu: Tone was going to be here. I rounded up the usual friends of mine, and went. My god, he was amazing. It was like having a little slice of the Winter Music Conferences I'd been missing, right there in Tokyo.

After the show, while the party goers were getting their things out of the coin lockers, I noticed this guy sitting at a table selling CD's. Among them, Nu: Tone's newest. It was 2,500 yen ($25). One of the employees saw me eyeballing it and told me in his broken English that Nu: Tone would sign it if I bought it. I suddenly realized that Dan, the man behind Nu: Tone, was literally right in front of me.

So I bought the CD, had a chat with Dan, and got my first autographed CD, ever.

"You from the States?" He asked.

"Yeah, Miami." I said. I continued to tell him about how much I liked Seven Years and Three Bags Full.

"Which of my albums do you have?" He asked me.

"Um... well I download my music. But that's why I'm buying this from you now."

Needless to say the conversation kinda went downhill from there. But I had to blog about it. Not only because the music was so good, but because this is absolutely an example of downloading music that makes money for an artist he wouldn't otherwise make. Not just the CD sale and my ticket, but several tickets for my friends as well.

There's no doubt that the golden age of CD sales is over. But playing shows will never go out of style. Dan, thanks.