Given what a rip-off it was, not sure why I miss the days of haunting tiny record shops to get $15 import CD singles with one new B-side and one worthless remix on them, but the heart wants what it wants.
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Last week my mother was startled when I told her our city doesn't have shops for physical recordings of music anymore (apart from a few boutique outlets that cater to vinyl or tape collectors - having a personal library of things you like has dwindled to a fairly expensive special interest).
I buy so much digitally now not because that’s the format I want but simply because the physical either doesn’t exist, is a fucking cassette, or the postage is 2-3x the album cost.
I‘m living in an area in Germany (Rheinland & Ruhrgebiet) where there were once countless record stores. I could spend whole days going from one city to another looking for records or CDs. Nowadays I have a list of missing records or whole discographies on streaming services. 🙃
For me it was the cheap-arse bin where that obscure second album of a band that never quite made it actually turns out to be the best thing I've heard to date.
Love to own the Japanese, Swedish and Austrian versions of "Carnival" by the Cardigans. When the Beautiful South released the singles for 8098, they were all doubles.
I had all the singles off Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes because (a) I was tragically obsessed but (b) each one had THREE legit unreleased extra tracks. THREE!
Someone else cited TMBG - their Elektra-era singles all tended to do the same. Three new songs PLUS one or two gratuitous remixes! (And the rumored b-sides collection from the era never did materialize…)
I still have some of her CD singles. My fave: the Crucify CD single, with her covers of "Angie," "...Teen Spirit," "and (my favorite) Led Zep's "Thank You."
I had (and still have) all of the US & UK singles for her first four albums. And kids these days can just hear any of them with a click. Get off my lawn etc.
Not long after seeing Roddy Frame for the first time, I found an Aztec Camera single on a Berwick St market stall; the B-sides were acoustic live tracks like the gig I'd seen. It took years to track down the other 3 singles that made up the set. Now they're on streaming, which is better, and yet...
Haha yes! I had a few of those unauthorised releases from Banana, Grapefruit etc. It was pretty cool being able to get a hold of those live bootlegs without being in the scene.
I somehow miss CDs... but ghod I don't miss vinyl. I spent $10 on a record one summer when that was a big chunk of my disposable income and I only owned four albums, and when I got home it had warped IN THE CAR. I don't even remember what the album was, just the betrayal. Vinyl can jump in the sea.
Yeah, having a streaming for $8/mo with every ever published for the most part is an exponentially better deal and has exposed me to all sorts of music I never would have heard otherwise. But I still miss browsing music stores.
I think about this whenever I spend $34.99 for a mid-quality LP pressing of an album that’s easily accessible on streaming in an exclusive orange starburst pattern, and yet…
I miss the curation inherent to the record stores; sure, I can go randomly search for stuff, but stumbling across Erik Satin's Light Music playing in the background of a shop is an entirely different experience
Going to my local record store every month to see if they had the latest Tori Amos or TMBG CD singles. I still have my German import of Prince's "God" single on purple vinyl. Many were expensive for just a song or two, and I regret nothing.
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I only regret not having enough storage space in 2002 to systematically rip every album in the used CD section of the store I worked at.
Disappeared on a military move when all my boxes were opened.