Friday Mix Tape: The Inflation Calculator

As you’ve probably read, the streaming service we used for Friday Mix Tape – Lala – will close on May 31 after the company was purchased by Apple. Current Lala members can stream this playlist to their heart’s content by CLICKING HERE, but we’re giving Grooveshark a shot for the embed below. Let us know if you have any issues with the Grooveshark player.

Since Lala has announced its demise, they’ve changed the price of purchasing a song from a dime to $.89 and $.99. Of course, now you get an actual MP3 instead of just the rights to stream the track. Regardless, this substantial increase is par for the course as inflation works its magic. For this week’s mix tape, we’ve put together six songs that reference a specific cost and use The Inflation Calculator to figure out how much the price for these items would increase from the time the song was released till 2009.

We start with Dylan’s Million Dollar Bash from The Basement Tapes and continue with Alligator by the Grateful Dead off of Dick’s Picks Volume 4Taxi by Harry Chapin from his Heads & Tales LP comes next followed by Soul Coughing with $300 off of 1998’s El Oso. We end with Van Halen’s ode to phone sex, Spanked, from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Wilco’s Passenger Side off their debut album, A.M.

Bob Dylan – Million Dollar Bash
What cost $1,000,000 in 1967 would cost $6,354,895.86 in 2009.

The Grateful Dead – Alligator
What cost $6.00 in 1967 would cost $38.13 in 2009.

Harry Chapin – Taxi
What cost $20 in 1972 would cost $101.43 in 2009

Soul Coughing – $300
What cost $300 in 1998 would cost $392.98 in 2009.

Van Halen – Spanked
What cost $3 in 1991 would cost $4.67 in 2009

Wilco – Passenger Side:
What cost $5 in 1995 would cost $6.97 in 2009.
Additionally, gasoline only cost $1.15 in 1995, so Tweedy could have put 4.3 gallons into that tank.

– DaveO and ScottyB

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