My New Year's resolution for 2006 was not to purchase any music from corporate record labels. I was just so disgusted with the music industry gouging both the listeners and the artists. To add insult to industry, the music industry starting placing ridiculous DRM restrictions on CDs and MP3s. There's just so much great music out there by independent bands and labels that there's simply no point putting up with that nonsense.

I purchased very few CDs in 2006 and the bulk of the music I've been listening to have been MP3s I have either downloaded or purchased so it is impossible for me to select my top 10 albums for this year. Instead, the tracks that appear on today's show are my top 10 songs for 2006 are songs that have appeared on the small WORLD Music Monday! segment.

I used iTunes to keep track of how often I actually played a song as well as allowing me the opportunity to rate the songs, which made it very easy to find out what my actual top 10 songs for 2006 were by setting up smart playlists. I created one smart playlist that selected 10 songs that were released in 2006 that I rated highly and created a smart playlist of 10 songs that I played the most often in 2006. Finally, I created a third smart playlist that chose 10 songs from the previous two playlists. This is a simple solution because I was able to generate a top 10 list that was a mix of songs that I listened to a lot as well as song that while I thought were fantastic but I didn't listen to all that much.

As an added treat, I've also included excerpts from the interviews with the artist or band that appeared on the Music Monday! segment talking about the each track that is featured on today's show.

I present to you my...

Top 10 Songs for 2006:

1. Paula Toledo "Joan"
   Appeared on Music Monday! February 13, 2006
2. Jason Whitton "I Still Believe In Love"
   Appeared on Music Monday! March 13, 2006
3. The Sway Machinery "Ahavas Olam"
   Appeared on Music Monday! July 24, 2006
4. Rena Jones "Driftwood"
   Appeared on Music Monday! November 6, 2006
5. Karsh Kale "Hole In The Sky"
   Appeared on Music Monday! April 19, 2006
6. Natalie Walker "Quicksand (Thievery Corporation Remix)"
   Appeared on Music Monday! December 4, 2006
7. Under "Union"
   Appeared on Music Monday! December 11, 2006
8. Cuchata "Janke"
   Appeared on Music Monday! August 21, 2006
9. Maxfield "Stucklike"
   Appeared on Music Monday! July 10, 2006
10. Matthew Kates "Nag Hammadi"
    Appeared on Music Monday! April 3, 2006