Apr 17, 2009

Support Your Local Music Store

Did you know that tomorrow (Apr. 18) is Record Store Day?
It is.
The day was started a couple of years ago to drum up support for the small, independent stores that are disappearing.

I used to have a favorite, locally-owned music store that I'd frequent and pick up my new and used CD's from.
Unfortunately they went out of business a few years back when iTunes had reached their gazillionth customer.
He said he just couldn't compete in a dying industry and sold everything.

I miss that place a lot.
They were friendly, knowledgeable and they had lots of cool hard-to-find music. Plus they were just fun to go in and talk to when I was in the area.

I've since gone to chain stores, like Best Buy, but they just don't have the personality and they only carry "what's popular".
I've also ordered from Amazon.com with okay success, but a I really prefer to buy something I can have my hands on as I'm purchasing it.
Lately I've been trying to order direct from the artist, so they they get as much of my money for their work without having to deal with an intermediary getting a cut.

I still haven't gotten anything from iTunes yet. Not that I dislike them, but I still really enjoy owning my music on 3-dimensional media (i.e. a CD), not just as a download on my computer.
(Not that I don't have plenty of those... if you catch my drift. *wink*)

Anyway, if you find yourself out-and-about tomorrow in the sunshine and happen to be near a local, independent music store. Pop in and wish them a "Happy Record Store Day" and maybe buy something they'd recommend. You might be surprised to find something new you hadn't heard before.

That's how I discovered a bunch of new artists. The store I used to go to would tell me, "You know, since you like 'so-and-so, you might also like 'such-and-such. They have similar roots in their style."

And you know what? 90% of the time they were right.

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